Home Prices: Sinking to Where They Belong? (Updated) 0
Note that almost half of these sales were “distressed“:
The NAR said distressed sales, which includes foreclosures, accounted for 45 percent of transactions in that quarter, dragging down the national median price of existing single-family homes to $180,100.
I suspect the sellers were also distressed, worrying whether their vehicles are big enough for their families to live in.
Prices may be close to bottoming out; the early 2000s was apparently when the just-busted bubble started to inflate (see graph here).
Criswell predicts that prices are going to stay flat for a long time. Persons fearing pay cuts and unemployment do not buy houses. Or cars. Or washing machines. Or anything they don’t have to have.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Atrios thinks that housing prices will slide significantly further.
He’s got a Ph. D. in economics and has taught in some of the finest universities in the world.
I don’t have a Ph. D. and have taught persons how to carry trays in dining cars.
We will see if my “it’s not rocket science” contention holds up.
If it doesn’t I will forget about this update.
