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. By looking back at these headlines we can analyze the current state of the market and project where it is heading from here.
Just in case you missed it, SavedByGrace had profiled a home that reflects how delusional people in this market currently are.
1/24/08 – Housing Slump Starts to Hit Stronger Cities (WSJ)
In California’s Orange County, around a quarter of the listings are either foreclosed properties owned by lenders or homes owned by people trying to do “short sales,” or sell for less than the amount they owe the bank…
1/28/08 – Sales of New Homes Fell by 26% in 2007 (NYT)
1/28/08 – Countrywide CEO gives up $37.5MM payoff (MarketWatch)
1/29/08 – Foreclosures up 75% in 2007 (CNN)
1/30/08 – Federal Reserves lowers federal fund rate by 0.50% – down to 3%
Despite 1.25% in interest rate cuts so far, major stock indexes ended in January with heavy losses. Home sales volume is down and foreclosures are up dramatically compared to last year. Although Bush is pushing for his stimulus plan to get the economy moving, everyone seems to have forgotten that the nation still faces an affordability problem.
We don’t need:
- Lower interest rates
- More cash from the government
We do need:
- Reasonably priced homes