Millions are going to lose their jobs here, banks aren't lending, etc etc...the housing market is finished. I can see places like Florida, Vegas and California plunging over 50% while the rest of the Country drops around 40%. We are going to 3rd World wages and with the high cost of living, nobody is going to be able to afford houses at current levels.
Fundamentally, houses could drop another 35-40% after fiat appreciation and oversupply factors are considered. Total appreciation from market bottom (2001) to top (2006) was ~50%. We've dropped ~16% so far. Parenthetically, the Government won't allow that to happen. Rates will get cut to the max. If that doesn't work, more rebates and tax cuts will follow from the politicos. This is all provisional on US Financials holding big subprime garbage. After US Banks dispose of their CDOs (foreigners? Pension funds?), guess where rates go? And the housing market? Inflation will be a "big problem" then.
Yes..America has just been SUB-PRIMED! Paper written on top of paper, written on top of even more paper, and all this was "allowed" with the winks and nods of those who are tanking the country to now the THIRD biggest economy. The sad fact is most Americans are totally clueless to this planned financial destruction. ..at least they all know what happened to Britney the last few weeks..LOL!
Bush is the new Hoover. <img src="http://www.picturehistory.com/images/products/0/0/8/prod_879.jpg"> Coolidge and Hoover: easy credit, too much debt -> bank failures, Depression, foreclosures, tent cities just like the picture Bush and Greenspan: easy credit, too much debt -> banks beginning to fail, foreclosures...
see what greed created over the last 5-7 years during the real estate boom. Its not over, next up CREDIT CARD DELINQUENCIES....
People are very good at fortune -telling on this forum, specially when it comes to doom and gloom forecasts, just because the way they feel..
I say cash out everything you can, move somewhere cheap in Europe, a small village perhaps, and live on a farm.
i knew we were in trouble when my next-door neighbor got a brand new benz, flew the entire family to alaska for a cruise and added some square footage to his house and a pool...this while just being laid off...:eek: