<p><a href=“http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/4q06hpi.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/4q06hpi.pdf</a></p>
<p>Barrons, the money is being turned off.
In the short run, that’s not good.</p>
<p><a href=“Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News”>Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News;
<p>Only the subprime market and that’s less than 10% of the average housing market (more in a few states). Money is still abundant and will be looking for investments. They can’t stand pat on the money for long–what are they going to do–put it into stocks?? The excesses are being quickly wrung out of the system and this will have little impact on most people. Some flippers will get killed but that is good.</p>
<p>The money goes pffft.</p>
<p>The stock market lost 500 billion in market value in the last 10 days. A small part of my money has gone pfft. Where is that money?</p>
<p>I agree. There is still a tremendous amount of money in the system looking for a place to go.</p>
<p>Assets trade on the margin. A 10 percent change in demand or supply can change the value of those assets dramatically. </p>
<p>I really don’t know how everything is going to play out. I wish I did.</p>
<p>I do know that historically, the assets that were in a bubble don’t do well when that bubble is pricked.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq isn’t close to where it was 6 years ago.</p>
<p>Where I live, I really don’t see a real estate bubble, but I might be wrong. I don’t know how many people are in financial trouble. I do have a friend that is going to move to a cheaper area. He had to reduce his house from $439,000 to $359,000 to sell it. I think he overpriced it from the beginning. If he priced it right, I think he would have received $379,000, but that is just my opinion.</p>
<p>Thank God homes are not dotcoms. People still need a place to live–we never needed somobody to deliver pet food to our doors. We probably don’t need 20,000 new condos in Miami either but that will sort out and some will become rentals or great bargains.</p>
<p>I sometimes think people are hoping homes are dotcoms, and it’s the 90’s.
I just read, on aol, the Fidelity housing report. Houses underperform stocks, yada yada. If I had spare cash it would matter but since I can afford only the one little house, equity becomes a larger part of our theoretical retirement. scary for me.
from aol …
RealtyTrac reported last week that the number of homes entering the foreclosure process increased by 19 percent in January, compared with December’s numbers. Compared with January 2006, the number of homes in the process is up 25 percent. In 2006, a total of 1.2 million homes entered the foreclosure process, 42 percent more than 2005.
1.05 percent of mortgages were in the foreclosure process in the third quarter of 2006, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The foreclosure rate increased from 0.99 percent in the second quarter; the rate was 0.97 percent in the third quarter of 2005.
<a href=“AOL - Finance News & Latest Business Headlines - AOL.com”>AOL - Finance News & Latest Business Headlines - AOL.com;
<p>A 1% rate is well within normal for recent times. Beware the scary but meaningless 25% increase stat. 25% of what base?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/working/98-2.pdf[/url]”>http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/working/98-2.pdf</a></p>
<p>People need places to live, but they don’t need 2500 sq foot places to live.</p>
<p>“People need places to live, but they don’t need 2500 sq foot places to live.”</p>
<p>Reminds me of George Carlin’s routine about “stuff”. The more “stuff” you get, the more house you need.</p>
<p>DH wants to rent out the living room since we usually don’t get beyond the kitchen/(small) great room at the end of the day. Could live in a smaller place but I don’t know what we’d do with all the extra “stuff”. </p>
<p>Our market is still strong here but that has more to do with our location, the mix of price ranges and the steady state and medical employment. I’m glad I no longer live in a 300 home subdivision with 5 floor plans where the competition for sale would be tough.</p>