6.5 Million Foreclosures, 18.6 Million Vacant Homes
Here are some cheery housing numbers, as the bankrupt truckersimpotently beep their horns at Congress and the food is rationed and "consumer expectations" hit lows not seen since the early 1970s: More than 6 million homes will go into foreclosure before this housing collapse is finished, and the number of houses now sitting empty in America has reached a staggering 18.6 million -- including 2.3 million currently on the market.
Imagine every housing unit in the entire state of California suddenly empty. That's about how many houses are vacant today.
Meanwhile, about one in eight households will meet Mr. Foreclosure in the next five years, according to the probably-too-rosy Credit Suisse.
Hey, maybe the 10 million new homeless families can move into some of the 18.6 million vacant houses ... ha ha, just kidding. That's not allowed! But if they try anyway, guess what all those mentally ruined home-from-Iraq soldiers will be put to work doing?
Columbia professor and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz did an interview with CNBC on Friday. Guess what he said about the combination of food and energy inflation plus the housing collapse?
"This is going to be one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression."
And this is why we need to take a long, hard look at Jeremiah Wright's religious sermons about black people.