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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Mar 22, 2009 18:37:44 GMT -6
from Reuters: Americans fear home price drop acceleratingFri Mar 20, 2009 by Richard Leong " Americans fear home prices will drop more sharply in the coming year, despite government efforts to resuscitate the battered real estate sector, according to a poll released on Friday.
U.S. homeowners surveyed by Reuters and University of Michigan predicted their home values would fall by 2.2% in the year ahead, the biggest anticipated decline in the past few years.
This predicted decline in March was steeper than the expected average fall of 1.9% in February.
Concerns that home value depreciation will intensify underscored the severe damage to consumer psychology stemming from the bursting of the housing bubble, heavy losses in the stock market and massive job losses.
If consumers, who account for more than 2/3 of U.S. economic activity, stay jittery about home prices, it will diminish the chance of the recession, the worst in decades, ending this year.
In the event of home prices rebounding, Americans downgraded the extent of future price rises, according to the survey.
"Even after the decline ends, the plunge in home prices has been so steep that it will be years before these concerns are completely erased and the negative wealth drag on spending growth disappears," said survey director Richard Curtin....
U.S. home prices have tumbled more than 26% since their peak almost 3 years ago, according to Standard Poor's/Case-Shiller indexes...." www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE52J3GA20090320
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:53:11 GMT -6
I don't like the idea of my home price dropping but it's just the law of supply and demand. We have a huge supply with little demand.
I also think any attempt by the gov to control the prices of homes (by trying to stop the downward price drops) is only going to prolong this economic mess.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Mar 22, 2009 21:44:00 GMT -6
I don't like the idea of my home price dropping but it's just the law of supply and demand. We have a huge supply with little demand. I also think any attempt by the gov to control the prices of homes (by trying to stop the downward price drops) is only going to prolong this economic mess. Exactly right. And bailing out homebuilders, which the government is also trying to do, will just make things worse. Giving them money will allow them to either build more unnecessary homes, or allow them to buy up land to prevent anyone else from building homes, or some combination of the two. Giving homebuilders even one penny makes no sense. But despite what should be a very bleak outlook for homebuilders, the DJ homebuilders index has not been consistently lower over last 3 months. (It fell, but then returned to previous levels.) Apparently investors still see light at the end of the tunnel for new homebuilding, despite the record surplus of homes on the market.
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