“So, let’s wrap things up. Those who think we are close to a bottom in the housing bubble are engaged in wishful thinking. You read above what those who really do their homework are saying. If we had more space, I could give you even more statistics and forecasts from Gary Shilling, Greg Weldon, Dr. Nouriel Roubini and others who do their homework, rather than trying to see a trend in one month’s statistics. Many of the home sales from February are foreclosures. Those are going to rise. The key pieces of data to look at will be the months of supply of homes for sale and foreclosures. Until the supply of homes gets back to 6 months, we will probably not have seen the bottom. Until we have worked through the millions of foreclosures that are in front of us, it is hard to think in terms of a bottom.
We are in a recession, and that means rising unemployment and falling consumer spending. It means tighter profit margins. Etc. It is going to take a long time for the economy to recover. Welcome to Muddle Through.
One final thought: If we do end up with a government bailout, and I agree that it’s likely, I sincerely hope that no one who cannot document that the information they submitted for their no-documentation loan was accurate will be given any assistance. If you lied, you do not deserve taxpayer money. If you took out a loan on which you could not demonstrate that you could make the payments, just because you wanted to profit from a resale of a home which was “surely” going to rise, you should not get tax-payer money. For every person we help like that, we keep a house from going down to a price that someone who deserves a home and has played by the rules could buy. Just my take.”
This guy understands, doesn’t he? This should be required reading for the potential home buyers who come on this site stating that even though they know the dangers, they just HAVE to buy NOW. They really don’t get it that they’re going to pay 100’s of thousands more in principal & interest by buying now plus higher real estate taxes based on their sales price.
