Every Friday I will provide a short list of news headlines that reflect the current state of our housing market; either locally, statewide or nationally. If you feel that I’m missing one, please leave a comment linking to the article.

1/17/08 – Median house price tumbles 15% in California

In addition to tumbling home prices, the article also reports that sales volume have “plummeted 41.4 percent… compared to December 2006.”

1/21/08 – A Recession, If It Comes, Could Be Worse Than Those of Recent Past <Wall Street Journal>

Talks of recession will only increase as the market attempts to correct itself. It was only the last two weeks that major media has latched onto this eye-catching headline. Those in the blogosphere already saw this coming since mid-2007 and maybe even earlier.

Housing is in the midst of its worst downturn since at least the 1970s.

1/22/08 – Panic! Fed cuts rates 75 basis points

In a very sudden move between Federal Reserve meetings, the overnight rate was cut down to 3.5%. Terms such as “market meltdown”, “recession” and “panic” are used liberally.

It was the largest cut in the federal funds rate since 1982…

1/23/08 – Prices Expected to Free Fall in 2008 and through 2009

Merrill Lynch has been very critical of the market and for good reason. There needs to be a price correction before the market can pickup again. All the while, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is quoted saying,

Merrill Lynch’s figures are way too pessimistic… There is so much variation in local housing markets, and we see stable price conditions for 2008.

And the most significant news of the week?
1/24/08 – Congressional leaders reach tentative deal on economic stimulus package

The good news? 95% of tax payers will receive a refund check this year.
The bad news? They want to raise the conforming loan amount so people are encouraged to take on more debt!

Frank said Fannie and Freddie would be able to buy mortgages worth up to 125 pct of the median value of a home in any given region, up to a new limit of 730,000 usd. The current limit on so-called conforming loans is 417,000 usd.