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Another sign of Economic Recovery: Housing market “Dropped off a cliff” in October

Dropped off a cliff.

A cliff.

Things are fine! We PLANNED this! Honest!

It’s part of the Recovery! Now go watch Survivor.

The housing market dropped off a cliff in October, as the original Nov. 30th expiration date for the first-time home buyers tax credit approached, according to the Housing Market Monitor of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Add to that the 6.25% 60-day delinquency rate in the third quarter — 58% above the level of one year ago — and you’ve got a recipe for housing disaster: more foreclosures, slower sales and ultimately a greater decline in house prices.

“With unemployment virtually certain to remain high well into next year, there is little prospect for any sizable drop in foreclosures,” Dean Baker wrote in the Nov. 18 issue of the Housing Market Monitor. “As a result, foreclosures will be putting homes on the market at an annual rate of close to 2 million. This is guaranteed to depress prices in a market with total demand of close to 5 million. In short, house prices will almost certainly resume their decline. The only questions are how soon and how fast.”

I guess it doesn’t get more clear than that, does it?

Top that off with all the jobs the Obama Administration has saved in Congressional Districts that don’t actually exist and I just know our future is rosy and our gazillion dollar debt money has been spent wisely.

Baker’s findings were backed by today’s report on housing starts from the U.S. Commerce Department which showed housing starts decreased 10.6% to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 annual rate. This drop erased months of gains as uncertainty over the renewal of the tax credit increased buyers’ caution.

Well, isn’t that super???

Hey, I have an idea! Let’s give another Trillion to Wall Street and Bankers! Especially since this article also warns that interest rates are going to rise. On mortgages, not on your bank account, silly!

Still, houses are getting REALLY cheap though. If you had a job you could buy one. Sorry! But be patient. After all most of the people in charge right now at the White House never so much as ran a fruit stand in their lives. It’s a learning curve thing! Be patient. They’ll get it right after about three or four more trillion. Goldman Sachs is helping them out.

  • sowsear

    My bank pays me .09% interest on my saivings acoount, and has offered me a nice loan for 8.9%. Isn’t that special?

  • sowsear

    Isn’t my spelling special, too?

  • lark

    I want to buy a pencil sharpener and a bag for potato chips but I need to wait for the Obama administration to give me an incentive, say at least a box of pencils and a sandwich coupon. Actually I am listening attentively to Obama to find out what exactly do I need and what will be in my best interest to purchase for the holidays. Maybe a government bureaucrat can visit me to give a list of the things I need to purchase to help myself and the economy.

  • http://jbjd.wordpress.com There IS credible evidence

    No thank you I can’t stand Survivor.

  • Tricia

    Just got a notice from my Master Card that the interest rate is now 29%. Didn’t Jesus run the money changers out of the Temple for way less than that?

  • http://jbjd.wordpress.com There IS credible evidence

    Which bank/issuer? Have you been late making payments? What reason did they give you?

  • Docelder

    Who is going to buy a house or a car without the government teats on it? When next month they might be right back on? This administration is just adding confusion to an already unstable market. There is no plan, no map and we have no idea what is coming next. Not a recipe for confidence… or recovery.

  • Ani

    :mrgreen:

  • Ani

    Love the snark, Uppity. And the fruit stand line is priceless. In fact, Ithink it would be an excellent exercise for those in charge to take a leave of absence and go run a fruit stand and see how they do at the end of six months. Maybe then they’d get a clue.

  • Banned in Beantown

    What they should have done was let any buyer have the 8k tax credit, not just first time buyers. That would take a good chunk of those forclosures off the market.

    All those purchases would further stimulate the economy with purchases of big ticket items and interior decorating.

    Give people that have money incentives to spend and invest it and put it to work.

    It’s not too late. My wife and I would have bought a second home with that incentive.

  • http://www.somosrepublicans.com DD

    Love this post!

  • xathnealon

    Banned
    Your suggestions sound, plausible,coherent, potentailly workable and responsible so do you really think they’ll go over big with tax cheat Geithner, loser Larry from Lithuania and clueless Bernanke? Anyone with any brain working syanpses that are at least half-firing can see that thsi administration is like the idiots in Blair Witch Project who can’t find their way out of the woods and who keep asking each other, “who’s got the map, who’s got the map?”

  • I’m a Linda too

    rofl spot on Uppity.

  • DS

    MasterCard doesn’t issue your card or manage the risk on your revolving line of credit. What issuer is changing your rate?

  • lark

    You get it, no; don’t you? With a little incentive from the government you can do wonders. Oh happy life. Viv’la Obamanation, no?

    If for any bad luck you end in jail, ever, ask to get in the paint house numbers on the street curb program. It’s a great government incentive to prepare inmates for real estate speculation.

  • lark

    That’s to give 10 percent rebate to those who buy their Christmas gifts at Sears, et. al. And to paint the building.

    Errr the higher the percent interest rate the higher the tax credits the government can give to those who itemize.

    Don’t forget that the next space shuttle needs to be financed and the next generation of astronauts will be have to be paid lots more money than these ones.

    And the name on the card says, ‘Master.’

  • http://www.sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty
  • http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com Uppity Woman

    They’re all heart, aren’t they?

  • http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com Uppity Woman

    Well Ani, actually Michelle is the only one who has the produce stand experience. I mean, didn’t she make her own farmer’s market? The one with the arugula at twenty bucks a pound? For The People!

  • TeakWoodKite

    The Job Losses in recent ressesions as a Share of Employment is a very sobering chart. It is not a metter of if but when.

    “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”

  • TeakWoodKite

    Comment by sowsear | 2009-11-20 17:39:13

    Isn’t my spelling special, too?

    I’m jealous. :)

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