Words of wisdom form Anonymous Poster on Hounsing Panic:
"Good God, Americans are so in debt that they can not afford for the nation to get back to normal interest rates, which is around 8%. The interest rates were lowered to the Eisenhowner era for debtors to go on a borrowing party to forget 911 and stimulate the economy. (Seems we may be following the path of Japan, 17 years of real estate declines in a nation where there is no more land.) The present American economy is not stable and looks more like a crack addict having withdraw symptoms, from easily borrowed money. "
Exactly. Do you see the runs on money at Countrywide Financial today? Where is Mozillo? Will he slither into hiding?
Posts
He's hiding in a tanning bed
ReplyDeleteDid I read correctly that someone had $500K in one bank? I understand that deposit insurance is capped at $100K per bank per customer. If he put $100K in five separate banks, he wouldn't be as worried. But, hey, the guy has about $300K more in savings than I have, so what do I know?
ReplyDeleteSecond Amendment.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I am so glad you didn't quit the blog. I know I have flirted with the idea off and on for some time now so I know the strain you feel. But as you were one of the few bloggers on-line when I started (god how this space has grown over the last two years), if you left the scene it would be a blow to me.
ReplyDeleteYes, bush's plea for people to go shopping after the pentagon and trade center attacks was appalling. I remember talking about that to people at the time. Americans have always been shopaholics and concerned more with what they can buy than anything else. You can read Walden if you doubt that. During the easy credit people bought more than usual and were happy to do so at their banker's encouragement. Saving and risk aversion have never been big for Americans, but for the banks to encourage so much spending was shocking. Interest rates do need to increase to undo this mess. The media needs to stop reporting about how construction jobs and other gains will be lost - those gains should not have existed in the first place. There needs to be some pain for the next few years to adjust our course. Every short-term fix that comes up only makes things worse.
ReplyDelete"Despite the continued drop, NAR's senior economist, Lawrence Yun called the results, "encouraging." 97 of the 149 metro areas surveyed recorded year-over-year price increases.
ReplyDelete"Although home prices are relatively flat, more metro areas are showing price gains with general improvement since bottoming-out in the fourth quarter of 2006," he said. "Recent mortgage disruptions will hold back sales temporarily, but the fundamental momentum clearly suggests stabilizing price trends in many local markets."
Looking ahead, Yun's forecast is one of the most optimistic among economists. "He predicts home prices will turn slightly positive again by spring of 2008 and rise about 2 percent that year. He said prices will pick up more in 2009."
Yun says prices will rise by 2% Spring 2008. This liar is just as bad Lereah...nothing but a paid shill. Who listens to the NAR, it a joke. Very amusing these days.
Japan's population is declining. Look into it; accurate information is readily available.
ReplyDelete-Raymond
this post hurts my head.
ReplyDeleteEvidently, you weren't learning to spell during your little break.
Anyone care to estimate the net worth of the United States real estate? I heard on the radio that we're worth some 50 trillion dollars. So taking that into account & all the reassurance from the Politicians about the "stregnth" of the U.S. care to add up what our "debt" really is? Let's see China has 1.5 trillion, Japan, ect. Then Social security, our national debt, I come around to a round figure that we've leveraged ourselve to the tune of 45%-60% of the U.S "net worth" in real estate. Well I'm sure I can pay all that debt off in 300yrs......per person.
ReplyDeleteHouse,
ReplyDeleteWithout going into specifics, let me suggest that when you figure "our" debt, you have to subtract out the money we owe to "ourselves" ... I.e., unless it's someone in China (and not the US) that has lent us that money to fund our mortgages, we don't count that as part of "our" national debt.
But, listen .. You guys are having a hard enough time trying to figure out how to get yourselves into a house ... Why take on the additional burden of worrying about "righting" our national economy. It's doing fine ... Stop worrying about it ... and concentrate instead on getting yourself into that house sometime well before 2008!
Lance said...
ReplyDelete“But, listen .. You guys are having a hard enough time trying to figure out how to get yourselves into a house ...”
Figure out what? That inventory still remains high, nationally at over 9 months? That lending standards have tightened, producing fewer buyers? That more ARMs will re-set? That given even the slightest breeze about another lender having trouble, the DOW drops triple digits? That foreclosures continue to rise?
What am I forgetting here “Lance”?
Lance is a real estate agent trying to avoid going back to flipping burgers with his feeble attempts at scaring people into buying something.
ReplyDelete