« First « Previous Comments 31 - 32 of 32 Search these comments
junkmail
@
2010 Jul 2, 8:50am
To all the graphers out there... you may be right about being at the bottom. However, I think you can only say that as we are climbing up the other side. Which it seems we're not. So if you continue to try and find 'glimmers of hope', it starts to smell like desperation.
Sure you can say things like "on par with coastal cities", "more affordable than western europe"... but I think as we move forward our graphs should start to add more esoteric quantifiers... How about perception? Something akin to wind-chill. Sure you guys are dragging out the thermometers, and saying "Look it's 5º above freezing..." I think the rest of us are saying, the wind is blowing like crazy, we're hungry and it's dark. So it feels a lot colder.
In the past I think the 'numbers' crew could say perception, expectations and belief have no place in schematics. Now, I'm not so sure. If enough buyers BELIEVE that house prices should/could come lower... isn't that a huge downward pressure on home prices?
Is that what you're worried about? Not being right or wrong... but if enough buyers hold off, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy? It seems like a Mexican stand-off between new buyers and the banks as it is anyway.
I think the numbers that came out today are leaning towards those of us who tend towards a W or a long drawn out bottom. One thing is for sure, we're NOT bouncing back any time soon. If you can't sense that... you don't buy your own milk.
inflection point
@
2010 Jul 2, 8:55am
junkmail
You are absolutely right
I think it would be great if people just did not bother to buy houses. At least not until it makes financial sense. I think that is was Patrick is trying to accomplish with his site.
It would certainly accelerate the inevitable. Wouldnt it be a economical boom if houses were affordable again. People could afford to buy a home and fuel the economy.
« First « Previous Comments 31 - 32 of 32 Search these comments
As I've read the news in recent months, strategic default is on the rise at alarming rate. Banks have been letting defaulted house owners stay in the house for years without paying the mortgage. As the number of squatters increases, banks' loan portfolio performance will decrease. From one of the news articles (don't remember the source now) squatters even demand that the bank reduce principal or take the house. They refuse to pay the mortgage if the bank does not reduce the principal to the current market value of the house. If the banks foreclose on the house, banks take a haircut too. What do you think the banks are going to do? Start to foreclose on non-paying mortgages or let the squatters live free?
#housing