patrick.net

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/28/real-estate-its-time-to-buy-again/

http://modeledbehavior.com/2011/04/19/are-there-too-many-homes-in-america-ctd-3/

I'm starting to hear all this nonsense about how a "housing shortage" is going to cause another real estate boom. Pundits, mostly from within the "industry", are convinced that people buy homes with some magical source of money divorced from income or savings. That mortgage interest rates have nowhere to go but up is never mentioned. That new buyers are burdened with much larger student loans than in the past is never mentioned. That a huge number of potential buyers are already underwater on their current housing is never mentioned. That wages are stagnant, at best, is never mentioned. That the rising costs of other essentials like energy and food are pulled from the same pool of money that will be used to buy housing is never mentioned. That down payment requirements are already higher and that financing is harder to come by is never mentioned.

What really rubs me is that affordable housing makes the lives of the populace better, not worse as all these REAs seem to imply. When I look at the prices people paid a decade ago for housing it makes so much more sense. Even adjusting those prices for three percent inflation would be okay. People could afford quality housing and then have some money left over for the rest of our economy. Instead everyone wants ten or more percent appreciation every year, which is quite a bit better than the stock market, and doesn't fit at all with incomes.

#housing