patrick.net

Brand,

No, you're right. I've never spent all that much time on the east coast, and most of the people I DO know there are connected to WS is some fashion. I was addressing more in general about regional attitudes toward wealth and money.

Here comes Helicopter from Ben Bernanke:

Bush, Bernanke Support Stimulus Package
Bush and Bernanke Back Package to Stimulate Weakening Economy

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday embraced calls for an economic stimulus package to avert recession. Bernanke said such a plan should be quickly implemented and temporary so that it won't complicate longer-term fiscal challenges.

The Fed chief, in testimony to the House Budget Committee, said efforts that involve "putting money into the hands of households and firms would be more effective" than other provisions, such as making Bush's tax cut permament.

median rent prices were essentially flat in 2007, rising just 0.5 percent to $1,465 a month, according to a sampling of 10 metro areas from Investment Instruments Corp.'s Rentometer. The stagnation is attributed to excess housing inventory as people are unable to "flip" investment properties. Residential rents in Atlanta and Houston dropped 12.8 percent last year.

PermaRenter Says:
I want more Silly Con Valley CEOs behind bars …

Me want that too. I don't know if there is a statute of limitations on this, but the eye-witness shenanigans I personally saw back in the '99/Y2K timeframe would be enough to put a couple of IPO CEO's into big trouble. Wish I was a little more ruthless, I could probably monetize that threat somehow... :-)

Permarenter,
Isn't that simply pathetic? The solution from the Fed and other "expert economists" for the current economic malaise is to find some way to get Americans to SPEND more!!! If that's the solution, we are all doomed. We're just fixing the addiction with more crack. Pretty soon, we are all going to OD, crash and burn.

Tent city in suburbs is cost of home crisis By Dana Ford
Fri Dec 21, 8:18 AM ET

ONTARIO, California (Reuters) - Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.

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The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.

The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression.

As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease.

While no current residents claim to be victims of foreclosure, all agree that tent city is a symptom of the wider economic downturn. And it's just a matter of time before foreclosed families end up at tent city, local housing experts say.

"They don't hit the streets immediately," said activist Jane Mercer. Most families can find transitional housing in a motel or with friends before turning to charity or the streets. "They only hit tent city when they really bottom out."

Steve, 50, who declined to give his last name, moved to tent city four months ago. He gets social security payments, but cannot work and said rents are too high.

"House prices are going down, but the rentals are sky-high," said Steve. "If it wasn't for here, I wouldn't have a place to go."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071221/lf_nm/usa_housing_social_dc

Google $100 drop within 30 days:

16-Jan-08 628.97 639.99 601.93 615.95 10,560,000 615.95
15-Jan-08 645.90 649.05 635.38 637.65 5,568,200 637.65
14-Jan-08 651.14 657.40 645.25 653.82 4,447,500 653.82
11-Jan-08 642.70 649.47 630.11 638.25 4,977,000 638.25
10-Jan-08 645.01 657.20 640.11 646.73 6,334,200 646.73
9-Jan-08 630.04 653.34 622.51 653.20 6,739,700 653.20
8-Jan-08 653.00 659.96 631.00 631.68 5,339,100 631.68
7-Jan-08 653.94 662.28 637.35 649.25 6,403,400 649.25
4-Jan-08 679.69 680.96 655.00 657.00 5,359,800 657.00
3-Jan-08 685.26 686.85 676.52 685.33 3,252,500 685.33
2-Jan-08 692.87 697.37 677.73 685.19 4,306,900 685.19
31-Dec-07 698.57 702.49 690.58 691.48 2,376,200 691.48
28-Dec-07 704.93 707.95 696.54 702.53 2,537,000 702.53
27-Dec-07 707.07 716.00 700.74 700.74 2,942,500 700.74
26-Dec-07 698.99 713.22 698.21 710.84 2,530,000 710.84

Malcolm Says:
They already do that in China. Google was recently investigated because one of the people it turned in from its search engine

Um... I think you are thinking about the _other_ search engine, I forgot what they're called... yeah who? :-)

Bay Area DQ numbers out for December:

http://www.dqnews.com/RRBay0108.shtm

This time, median is finally down, and it's down in EVERY SINGLE COUNTY (except Marin, for which it is flat). Let's hear the bulls' arguments now that Bay Area prices are immune to the downturn.

I like their headline,

"Bay Area home sales drag along bottom, median price back to 2005 level."

median price back to 2005 level

I still remember hearing homeowners boasting $xxx/day appreciation.

SP, I stand corrected, it very well could have been Yahoo and I mixed them up. I'm not certain.

skibum Says:
I like their headline: “Bay Area home sales drag along bottom"

My favorite line is still there: "Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions". An apt euphemism for stuff hitting the fan.