U.S. House Price Decline

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

U.S. House Price Decline Could Be Worse than Great Depression, Economist Shiller Says

Posted Sep 04, 2008 01:36pm EDT by Henry Blodget in Newsmakers, Recession

Eight years ago, Yale superstar professor and MacroMarkets chief economist Robert Shiller famously called the top of the stock market in his book Irrational Exuberance. Then, a year before the housing bubble peaked, he predicted the colossal bust we are now experiencing.

If you recognize Shiller's name, it’s because the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes, which he developed with Wellesley College economist Karl Case, have become the nation's most authoritative source for home price trends.

In part one of my one-on-one with Shiller, we discuss the grim outlook for U.S. housing, which he tackles in-depth in his new book The Subprime Solution. Highlights of our first discussion include:

• Home price declines are already approaching those in the Great Depression, when they plunged 30% during the 1930s. With prices already down almost 20%, it's not a stretch to think we might exceed that drop this time around.
• There are about 10 million homeowners whose debt is higher than their home value, which has broad implications for how Americans feel about their wealth and spending habits (read: more pressure on consumer spending).
• The current hopeful consensus -- that house prices will bottom soon and then begin to recover -- is most likely a dream. Housing markets don't usually have "V-shaped" recoveries. And even if house prices stabilize in nominal terms, after adjusting for inflation, most homeowners will continue to lose money.

[Michael Bazzo, CMI]

Thank You Allen Greenspan

[John McKenna]

http://mysite.verizon.net/vodkajim/housingbubble/

Looks like we have seen a few ups and downs.

[Michael Larson]

Missed the end of that graph John

Not sure how useful a national average chart is anyway.

[Randy D. Stufflebeem]

Originally Posted by mbazzo

Thank You Allen Greenspan

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Home loan troubles break records again

Friday September 5, 1:06 pm ET
By Alan Zibel, AP Business Writer
Delinquencies, foreclosures rise to more than 9 percent of US home loans in second quarter


WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage, a record 9 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, as damage from the housing crisis worsened, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday.

But the source of trouble in the mortgage market has shifted from subprime loans made to borrowers with poor credit to homeowners who had solid credit but took out exotic loans with ballooning monthly payments.


"The problem that policymakers and Wall Street once assured us was 'contained' to subprime mortgages has proven to be anything but," Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research, said in a research note.

The trouble is concentrated in a handful of states, the worst being California and Florida, which had some of the riskiest lending practices and rampant speculation.

"We are unlikely to see a national turnaround until we see a turnaround in the two largest states," with the most outstanding home loans, said Jay Brinkmann, the association's chief economist.

The latest quarterly figures broke records for late payments, homes entering the foreclosure process and for the inventory of loans in foreclosure. The trade group's records go back to 1979.

The percentage of loans at least one month past due or in foreclosure was up from 8.1 percent in the January-March quarter, and up from 6.5 percent a year ago, using figures that were not adjusted for seasonal factors.

New foreclosures rose dramatically in eight states: Nevada, Florida, California, Arizona, Michigan, Rhode Island, Indiana and Ohio, but actually declined in Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland.

Read the rest: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080905/home_foreclosures.html