Tag Archives: housing crash

Today’s Housing Bubble Post – Ripples

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The slowdown in the housing market is already affecting the sales of pickup trucks. Housing slowdown brakes pickup sales | Chicago Tribune,

General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the world’s three largest automakers, are discovering that a housing slump can do what record fuel prices couldn’t: cripple demand for pickup trucks.
From 1995-2005, sales of full-size pickups surged 46 percent as home builders bought them for work-related projects and consumers followed suit.
But sales are down 14 percent this year, hurt by a housing slowdown that caused existing-home prices to drop for the first time in 11 years last month.

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Today’s Housing Bubble Post – “Worst May Lie Ahead”

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Glut of unsold homes pummels U.S. housing – Some economists fear worst may lie ahead,

The long-predicted correction in U.S. housing prices has apparently begun.
The median selling price fell for the first time in 11 years last month, on an annual basis, pushed lower by the largest glut of unsold homes since 1993, and some economists fear the worst may lie ahead.
The price fall comes amid concerns that the U.S. housing slump could quickly spread to other areas of the economy as consumers react to the falling value of their nest eggs. In recent years, homeowners have used the equity built up in their homes to finance their lifestyles. A U.S. downturn now could also spill over into dependent economies, including Canada’s.

But wait, there’s more!
Analyst says of new data: ‘Pop goes housing bubble’,

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Today’s Housing Bubble Post – Prices Are Falling, Layoffs Beginning

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Here it comes. After this news buyers will start demanding price reductions. This can only accellerate — this bubble could “unwind” very rapidly. Where IS the bottom? Just remember what happened when the stock market bubble popped. Existing-home prices fall for 1st time in 11 years,

Median sales prices of existing homes fell from year-ago levels in August for the first time in 11 years and just the sixth time in the past 38 years, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.
Sales of existing homes fell 0.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.30 million, the industry group said.

And the ripple effects are beginning to spread with mortgage companies and realtors starting to lay off employees:

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Today’s Housing Bubble Post – The House of Horrors

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One economist calls the popping bubble “the house of horrors.” Use caution when trying to counter housing downturn

Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg calls it “the House of Horrors.”
He’s referring to his fear that a plunging housing market could turn even uglier, taking the breath out of the economy and the stock market.
… He was fretting about foreclosures nationwide surging 53 percent year-on-year in August. He was pointing out that while many adjustable-rate mortgages have yet to move upward, already the Homeownership Preservation Foundation is receiving a record number of calls from borrowers seeking help.
Whether the housing downturn will still allow a so-called soft landing for the economy or yank the shopping instinct out of the American consumer remains to be seen.

Other stories:

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Today’s (First) Housing Bubble Post

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Slowdown in US housing market the biggest threat to global growth: IMF,

The slowdown in the US housing market is a key threat to global growth.
This is according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its half-yearly Global Financial Stability Report.

Housing numbers out today,

Real estate experts expect to see slowing sales and price gains and increased inventory, but nothing resembling a bursting bubble, when the Northwest Multiple Listing Service releases its August numbers today.

Heh. We’ll see. More later.

Today’s Housing Bubble Post – Prices Will Drop Now

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Here’s the kind of headline that is starting to reach home buyers: House hunters’ tip: Prices may fall, a first in 13 years. This news that people should expect falling prices is only starting to sink in out there. Changing people’s expectations is a slow process. But when it does sink in — that is when we will start seeing real drops in prices. Right now we’re still in a housing bubble and buyers think they are seeing “bargains” while sellers are holding out with unrealistic expectations. Once it really sinks in that prices are falling – and falling fast – the buyers will start expecting ever lower prices, and the sellers will either take their homes off the market or dump them before prices fall further.
Prices will likely revert to the mean. This June chart from The Economist — “The worldwide rise in house prices is the biggest bubble in history. Prepare for the economic pain when it pops” — shows where prices were in relation to the mean (100 on the chart) back in 2005, and shows what happened when Japan’s smaller bubble popped.


From the Economist story,

Japan provides a nasty warning of what can happen when boom turns to bust. Japanese property prices have dropped for 14 years in a row, by 40% from their peak in 1991. [emphasis added]

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More Housing Bubble News

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Calculated Risk: Housing: Difference a Year Makes, has a great chart of year-to-year changes in the housing market. Keep in mind that the real news of a downturn in housing is only recently hitting the press in a way that will penetrate to average people. These numbers are what is causing that news – and NOT from people reacting to that news. Things will really start happening when people start reacting, and start understanding that their house will be worth less next year, and start thinking about taking a profit – or just getting out – now.

Recent data quantify housing cooldown (year-over-year changes).
Builders’ sentiment down 52.2%
New-home sales down 21.6%
Purchase-mortgage applications down 20.9%
Building permits down 20.8%

Go see the whole chart.

Today’s Housing Bubble Story – San Jose Home Prices Down 6% Since June

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San Jose home prices fall 6% June to August; year-to-year declines likely here, for U.S.,

National home prices are likely to fall below where they were in late 2005, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
The same trend could occur in the Bay Area, local experts said, reflecting a broad-based market shift in which homes for sale generally outnumber eager buyers.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a drop in prices of 10 or 15 percent by the end of the year, from the peak,” said Edwin Resuello, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, referring to home prices countywide.

U.S. Home Prices May Fall for First Time in 13 Years,

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Today’s Housing Bubble Post – Roundup

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Housing slowdown will hurt factories in ’07-study,

The cooling housing market and a softening of capital spending will bring a slowdown in U.S. manufacturing activity next year, according to a study released by an industry trade group on Thursday.
… “The housing market has turned, it’s going to be down this year and even down more sharply next year,” Dan Meckstroth, chief economist of the Arlington, Virginia-based trade group, told Reuters.

U.S. Stocks Fall as Housing Slump Deepens,

U.S. stocks dropped for a second day after two homebuilders cut their earnings forecasts, fueling concern that the housing slump may curb economic growth.

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The housing collapse heard round the world

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The housing collapse heard round the world,

…But the peak has passed, and the consequences of the deflating bubble are buffeting the housing market, in Washington and across the United States.
What sold in a weekend here last year is taking months to unload. And increasingly nervous home sellers are slashing prices to get rid of properties before their value sinks even further. One buyer recently threatened to walk away from a signed contract on a $1.6-million house unless the seller took $100,000 off the price to reflect the drop in value since the deal was struck. The seller quickly buckled, fearing the house might be worth even less if put back on the market today.
“Look how fast prices were going up. The same thing is happening on the way down,” observed Ms. Gaus, who’s been selling homes in Potomac for 16 years.

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Today’s Housing Bubble Post – “Wheels Coming Off”

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‘The Wheels Are Coming Off’ – a terrifying roundup of the problems battering housing, including a reference to Bloomberg yesterday, U.S. Home-Price Gains Slow as Housing Slump Deepens,

U.S. home-price growth slowed during the second quarter from a year earlier in the sharpest three- month plunge on record, according to a government report issued today that indicates this year’s housing slump is deepening.
“The wheels are coming off the housing market,” said Scott Anderson, an economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis. [emphasis added]

Keep in mind, this is only the very start of the popping of the housing bubble. It’s only just hitting the news in a way that spreads out to the broad public. It is only after it becomes generally understood that housing prices are not going up anymore and people take price appreciation out of their buying calculation that we will start to see real changes. Prices have a long way to fall before things get back to normal.
Also noted:

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Today’s Housing Bubble Post – This Week’s Price Data Will Tell A Lot

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All eyes will be looking at Tuesday’s release of the Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight home price index, which will cover April-June. Home price data takes center stage this week,

Home values are critical to the economic outlook. Economists disagree about how the housing slowdown will impact consumer spending.
The rise in home prices has been an important driver of consumer spending. Many consumers have been refinancing their mortgages based on the higher home values and using the cash to finance purchases.
… On a national average basis, home sales have not fallen in any year since the late 1940s, said Berson. There have been some quarterly declines, and prices have been down annually in some regions.

Estimates are that it will show a slowing in the rise of prices.