Wonkette
Remember back in the early days of the Iraq War when President Bush repeated dumbly, month after month, “We’re turning a corner,” and things just got worse? That’s basically the situation in our domestic housing market: a relentless onslaught of bad news, brief hope that things could not possibly get any worse, followed by unspeakably awful news.
Housing prices in 20 cities fell 19 percent between January 2008 and January of this year. And back in January ‘08, prices had already been falling steadily for a year. A Barclays economist predicts we won’t see an actual bottom in home prices until the second half of 2010. So, basically, we will have suffered through 3.5 years of steady price declines before things stabilize, whee!
Where do things suck the most? Phoenix and Las Vegas, of course, where John McCain lives and gambles. John McCain killed your mortgage.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fell by a Record 19%
On the plus side, it turns out Tent Cities are extremely flammable, so I hope we all like living al fresco:
http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/1740169.html
Time to plant some more hobo beans in my
recessiondesperation garden, and water them with tears.So that means the equity of my house is now $19.99.
As an owner of a house…. erm a mortgage in Las Vegas! Damn him! He made me come back to DC for a job.
At least I’m not turning gay tricks in a tent or anything.
A 20 percent housing price drop is “unspeakably awful?” Speaking as someone who would like to buy a home before my kid turns 18, I call this news “unspeakably wonderful.”
WhatTheHeck: You have equity? You lucky bastard.
Finally, the time of the renters has come! Mua-ha-ha-haaaaaa!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/realestate/29cov.html?_r=1&em
Yah, those of us who have been dutifully eating our hobo beans and hiding cash in our rented mattresses waiting for a pricing scheme that somehow relates to people’s actual incomes are truly enfabulated by the falling prices.
I lived in CA during the housing bubble peak. Fun times! Housing prices went through the roof, and so did rents. To put it in perspective: I was SHOCKED to find a nice two bedroom apartment in DC for under $2,000. In CA, we were paying over $2,000 for a crappy two bedroom with leaky windows and a drug-dealing neighbor who liked to smash his 40 bottles on the stairs.
There is a lot of air still to be let out of this bubble. I’m now perversely grateful that I was too poor to afford to buy a home during the boom.
Ah, sweet ramen-flavored silver lining.
See that house in the picture? I built that. I built that out of graham crackers and cardboard boxes I found behind the liquor store. Now I live there with my wife, my mother-in-law, and twenty-seven russian-speaking relations.
Phoenix’s destruction and non-rebirth I can live with, but if our vengeful G-D fucks with Vegas (shakes fist)…
Why all the doom & gloom? Even at the worst part of the first depression employment was only 25%. That means 75% of the people were employed! That’s a lot of people!
So housing prices are 81% of what they were a year ago. That’s a big number, 81!
Cicada:
I wish I was poor enough to have been turned away from buying a small condo back in late 07. The market was already on the way down then and the wife and I bought a very inexpensive place, but still….
So, with all this rosy news I shouldn’t feel guilty about drinking a box of Rose’ a night, right, right??1
Old news from an index that lags way behind. Nothing newsie here.
I always wanted to buy the neighbors’ house and tear it down to make a garden… I should check the sofa & ashtray for spare change
‘Where do things suck the most? Phoenix and Las Vegas, of course.’
Who would have thought that buying property in the middle of a fucking desert would be an unwise investment?
Botswana Meat Commission FC: Careful what you wish for. Think about how poor you would have had to have been to be turned down for a loan in ‘07. Like living in a dumpster, having babies for the meat poor.
Those McMansions are looking more and more like the real estate equivalent of the Chia pet.
Building those houses in Vegas and Phoenix was the only source of teh jobs.
Now we are all hoboes.
Tent living is good here 9 months of the year, so-huzzah!
Botswana Meat Commission FC: He done shit all over Vegas. Vegas crapped out on the come out throw. Vegas drew a ten hitting on a twelve. The wheel stopped on 00.
Vegas is cheap to visit now. And I can’t afford to stay in my house which I can’t afford to sell either. And I’m one of the lucky ones.
I almost wish I’d bought too much house so I could blame myself for something something wrong.
Cheap housing is bad for people who bought their hopes expensive, but the bright side is that it at least makes housing more accessible. Average home prices in most parts of the country are so high in relation to the average income that costs were prohibitive to a lot of people. I mean, I can imagine a home price being equivalent to, maybe, two-three years’ salary for a person well into his/her career. But folks making $50K a year were buying $300K houses.
Now what’s attrocious is the price of rent, goddamn it. When the economy is bad, rental housing should not be shooting up forty percent.
sati demise: the sidewinders and coyotes do kinda suck tho. and don’t get me started on the gila monsters.
flavorflav:
Bonus: I no longer have to listen to friends go on and on about how their 90 year old shack makes them endless monies. (OTOH, I hope that I least get a reasonable “heads up” from my landlord if she loses the 90 year old shack I rent.)
On a related note, it seems the banks are foreclosing on people, kicking them out, letting the vacant houses fall apart and then walking away from the foreclosure.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/us/30walkaway.html?em&exprod=myyahoo
The good news? The homeowner may get to keep their house.
The bad news? It’s been stripped, looted, vandalized and torched. Welcome home!
Did someone say Las Vegas is cheap to visit now? Good thing we’re going tomorrow to celebrate our 10th anniversary, staying at the Venetian. Flying Southwest, though, so it ain’t like we’re throwing money away. Though we are seeing Bette Midler tomorrow night. Adults only!
I want to be as upset about housing as the rest of you guys, but at age 22 I am just about to enter the housing market, and these prices are fuckin’ fantastic. But don’t get too mad at the uppity college student, I won’t be able to get a job anyway.
Anybody who doesn’t think the average house was at least 20% overpriced two years ago just hasn’t been paying attention. I’m just pissed off that the tax assessment (done in 2007)on my modest cave looks like the original asking price in a booming market.
I got out of the housing market and into the cardboard box market over a year ago. I am a wise, wise man.
Lascauxcaveman: That’s the rub. Housing prices fall, yet property taxes continue to increase. I am begining to accept that they will never go down.
Stock Tip: International Container, the new boom in real estate.
Think of them as office pods on a budget.
This was caused by the terrorists who hate our freedoms. They’ll have us all living in caves soon wearing rags so they have already won.
At least the fundamentals are strong
WhatTheHeck: Well, at least $19.95 is still above water! More than I can say.
This photo is why the remodeling biz is on the upswing…that and Mad Dog 2020…
As someone who is damn lucky to still have a job as a cog in the mortgage process, I can say we haven’t been this busy in a looooooooooooooooong time. Seriously, we’re swimming. Some of it’s refi, but a chunk is new home buyers, too. It’s not as bad as everyone’s saying it is.
Methinks taking notes during the next ep of “Survivorman” would be a good idea……..
When I first came to Wonkette I felt more conservative than Lincoln. Now I find myself agreeing with Wonkette all too often…yes, the housing market is bad! The bad housing market goes hand-in-hand with the bad stock market. If all those loans hadn’t been made companies like Lehman Brother’s and AIG wouldn’t have failed. BUT, at the same time, without those loans all of those homes wouldn’t have gotten built.
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
-billorders84
http://bill84121.blogspot.com
The housing “crisis” kind of depends on where you live. For instance, here in Seattle it is not too bad. Although Homes are not selling fast, we are not seeing many foreclosures and the prices have pretty much stabilized. I guess having Microsoft and Boeing jobs has helped. Funnily enough, the rental market is now crying the blues. Can’t figure that on out.
Your post was helpful…
Thanks for the information.
Reo Homes
It’s great to find such a well laid out article, thanks for the Sharing.
We Buy Home