I've made some fairly strong statements in the past 60 days about this being the most challenging housing market in the past 50 years and in response several of you have taken the liberty of 'disagreeing' with me. This morning's Wall Street Journal (7/14/2008) takes it a step further.
The worst housing market since Herbert Hoover was in office?
There are some dead straight answers to what to do to sell your home in this piece and many of you will not like them. There remain two distinct constants right now in our market place. First, price, read fire sale price, sells. Second, until all of us call this for what it is...that being a housing depression, it will not resolve itself by market forces. The sooner we all recognize this for what it is the sooner we it will begin to correct itself. Anything else is just fools gold.
Indymac's takeover by the Feds is just another example of banks in trouble. The good news is the customers get their money through federal guarentees. The bad news is that IndyMac wasn't even on the national list of over 160 lenders that were in trouble. No doubt they got hammered by the incredible number of California foreclosures because of the roughly 40% reduction in many Cali property values in the last 30 months. Regardless of the reason, it's not good. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mercury are far bigger shoes that could drop but hopefully won't. With their enormous influence, even just having the Feds step in to save them would be hugely negative in it's psychlogical impact right now. Personally I'd pass on any more bad news.INTEREST RATES......hovering around 6.4% to 6.5% on a conventional 30 year fixed with Jumbo loads floating in and out of the 8.0% range. Mortgage rates have gone up and will continue to do so. How high they go will determine how long it takes our housing problem to resolve itself.
Questions? Comments? Donations? Greg@GregCooper.com or 317.848.GREG (4734)
