obama has just about cleaned up all of the bush disasters. ended the war in iraq. restored the market and restored peoples 401ks. turned around the economy and job growth. there has been one area slow to respond but now that too has turned. housing. some areas are higher than precrash and some areas are reporting shortages: Case-Shiller Home Price Index Rises Again in September Posted by Diane Swonk on November 27, 2012 The Case-Shiller 10- and 20-city composite indices of home prices rose 2.1% and 3%, respectively. This adds to the evidence reported in other home price measures, underlining that housing prices have finally bottomed and are turning around again. Gains were most pronounced in some of the hardest-hit markets, such as Phoenix, San Diego and Las Vegas. Home values in Phoenix show gains of more than 20% from a year ago. http://www.mesirowfinancial.com/blo...er-home-price-index-rises-again-in-september/ it must suck to be a right winger and have everything you have been told by fox republican news proven wrong right before your eyes.
Actually, the zerohype "shadow" data indicates everything is sekretly very bad and getting much, much worse. The only conclusion that can be drawn is, "WE'REALLGONNADIENATIONOFTITSUCKINGPARASITESONIGNORE!!!1!!":MAD::MAD::SAD::SAD:
So if ZIRP creates another housing mania, it's "Mission Accomplished"? Even if this is the exact same scenario that caused hordes of liberals to slam the easy money policies of Greenspan while Dubya was President? Or the exact same pre-conditions that led to the financial crisis in 2008? Or the fact that unemployment (or better yet labor participation rates) are so far off of their highs from 2007, that rising housing prices put a strain on discretionary spending. Or perhaps the record number of housing units sold in 2012 could have something to do with large entities buying up tracts of homes, doing some cosmetic re-hab and renting them out in bulk? Re-inflating asset bubbles is NOT a symptom of a healthy economy no matter how many media pundits try to spin it as such.
A "Krugmanite" in a nutshell. 1) Spin whatever positive data is available. (Don't worry if it's revised later. i.e. GDP). Just spin the headline numbers to the point of absurdity. 2) Ignore any negative data points. (If not possible, fall back on the false premise that there wasn't enough stimulus. Argue this point incessantly to any critics. Tell them that the only reason the economy isn't running on all cylinders is because the government did not do enough spending). 3) Rinse and repeat.
That is what I'm seeing. The town that surrounds my mountain has about 14,000 homes in it and all very inexpensive. Around 2007-2008 there were hundreds of them abandoned with weeds growing up in the yard etc. Over the last two years they've all been bought up, refurbished, painted, landscaped etc and have families living in them. I don't think there is an empty house in the whole town. I've never seen it look so good but I think they're all rentals.
I've followed the blog, "Dr Housing Bubble" and he focusses almost exclusively on Southern Cal. It was his observation that a number of Private Equity/Hedge Fund type investors had been buying up inventory over the past few years. I would assume that the bank which housed alot of gave them favorable terms to "buy in bulk" rather than some piecemeal type situation which could have gone on for years.
It saddens me. He used to post meaningfully and debate intelligently. Something happened and he became militantly partisan and his posts became angry propaganda. His side won the country, not sure why he is still so pissed.