The desert heat melts Arizona home prices – Phoenix home prices now back to late 1990s levels while state tax collection drop to 1998 levels. The second lost decade in the desert.
The real estate crash is much deeper than the media is making it out to be. Entire life savings are being wiped out in markets that are tanking like the Titanic. What is troubling is that some markets are having depression like symptoms with home prices falling 50, 60, and even 70 percent in a […]
The financial bubble that is still popping – Home prices enter a deep double dip because household incomes are still in a rut. Housing bubbles in Los Angeles and San Francisco persist while Miami and Phoenix metro areas face double digit annual price declines.
Some people are stunned that home prices continue to sink as if a lead weight was placed on the value of housing. The mainstream press never sliced and diced the minor jump in prices we had last year because much of the increase occurred around tax credit gimmicks and the Federal Reserve using artificially low […]
The financial tipping point of peak debt – Total credit market debt owed increased from $28 trillion in 2001 to over $52 trillion in 2011. Household debt contracting while Fed juices up the banking sector with more debt.
At the dark heart of our financial dilemma is debt. Too much debt was used to bolster households during the real estate bubble and now too much debt is being used by the government to bail out the financial sector. Is there a tipping point in the amount of debt the American economy can shoulder? […]
The financial elixir that is falling home prices – Lower home prices good for the economy – Median U.S. home price down to $157,000 taking up 3 times the annual household income instead of the bubble peak of 5. Adding jobs while home prices move lower? Banks big winners when home prices remain inflated.
It is interesting that in the short-term horizon of our economy falling home prices are occurring while jobs are being added. The banking sector during the early days of the crisis made it abundantly clear that falling home prices would lead to economic collapse. Yet the opposite is occurring. Why? First, inflated home prices eat […]