DISQUS

Brock Ducharme · 7 months ago

That's funny, they just dropped the price of two-bedroom apartments in my neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland from $3000 to $1850. Is it all those empty buildings and jobless young people no longer able to pay out the nose, or is it that they just didn't see this FASCINATING, trenchant CNBC report?

san fermin · 7 months ago

CNBC is recommending bonds.....

I wonder if the fact that PIMCO ("the authority on bonds"(r)) is a major advertiser has anything to do with it.

Kimo Crossman · 7 months ago

Um.. San Francisco Chronicle today says there is a huge shadow inventory at least 1/3 of repos not on the market - banks are afraid to sell at such low prices

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/...

TomJoad · 7 months ago

We are in uncharted waters. All bets are off...

Couple of points,
ONE, I always thought, and it seems to be happening, at SOME point house prices get low enough and people are going to snap them up. Houses are NOT like the stock market. Stocks can go all the way down to zero, over and out. Houses are physical structures that if maintained will ALWAYS have some intrinsic worth, and will at some point rise again in worth.

I thought about that with these "toxic stocks" of sub-prime loans. WHO owns those defaulted houses? because, someone could scoop up those "worthless" toxic stocks, and because there really is a worth attached, just wait until foreclosure and buyers start sniffing around.

TWO: Especially in "winter" areas, house sales are somewhat seasoanal. Areas that are considered "resort" also, but even primary homes...people in places with winter tend to want to buy and sell in fall, summer, spring....but then again, in winter if less on the market may want to try there too.

Again, if you had 75,000 dollars laying around, and feared putting it into stocks, because of THAT roller coaster, and return on CD is terrible, and you find out you can buy a beautiful house that used to go for 300,000 for only 75,000 I got a feeling you'd have to outbid to get it....which raises prices, etc.

Older_Wiser · 7 months ago

CSPIN talking about govt floating "bonds" for financials in trouble. Fuggedaboutit.

Chris, I'm a lover of oranage marmalade, but the first ingredient in American made is corn syrup fructose (then corn syrup). I found a French brand, "Bonne Maman" that has none of that; first ingredient is sugar, second is oranges. What do you know about this brand? Not as good as English brands (which I can't find in this area), but at least no corn syrup...

idrobny · 7 months ago

cnbc has proven itself to be a cheerleader for certain "experts" it calls on to analyze the economy. i feel they are a disgrace to people looking for real advice for decisions regarding the market. entertainment medium, o.k. information channel, on par with the disney channel.

bob_h · 7 months ago

Housing affordability is apparently at a 40 year high now, so we must be near the bottom. In and around NYC you can get mortgages, but with 20% down. That will ensure we have no bubble for awhile.

pat · 7 months ago

housing affordability is better but until all the foreclosures
begin working their way out through and the market settles down
will we know what's really happening.

Every spring is good, and it's april, and given the tsunami
coming, i wouldn't want to be anwhere near the
purchase of anything but the best of deals.

Laura · 7 months ago

I work in a real estate office in Princeton NJ and I am seeing some very positive signs in the housing market. Showing appointments and contracts have picked up. Getting to closing is still a huge headache -- banks are not very cooperative but we are feeling somewhat hopeful.

ShortWoman · 7 months ago

I agree with those who point out that housing is not like the stock market. Not only is this because property always has value, not only because houses are much less liquid an asset than stocks. It's also because property markets are fundamentally local; there are dozens of major housing markets and hundreds of smaller ones. I don't think anybody can do more than generalize about the "nationwide" housing market because there's no such thing.

That being said, I'm a Realtor in Vegas, one of the top 5 or so cities for foreclosures. Property values have dropped roughly 30% over the last year. There's been a measurable drop just since the first of the year. We're already at the point where you can buy it for way less than it cost to build it. Last Friday there were 2500 houses and another 2000 condos/townhomes under $100k. That's "you can't rent anything for what the mortgage would be" pricing (stick it into a mortgage calculator to see what I mean). The result is that sales are way way up, and pending sales are high too both in raw numbers and in year-over-year figures (yes, real estate has seasonality).

Just because I am seeing good things and the Realtor from NJ is seeing good things doesn't mean things are good anyplace else. Lawrence Yun and the CNBC Bobbleheads nead to stop talking it up and start looking at data.

bunntjump · 7 months ago

These talking heads have less credibility than weather forecasters...every time there's an uptick to the markets, they're shouting recovery.

pat · 7 months ago

Dead CAt BOUNCE

pat · 7 months ago

john, the sharpest webloggers on housing are
1) Professor John Piggington piggington.com
2) Calculated Risk www.calculatedrisk.com
3) patrick patrick.net