As Home Prices Drop, 'Serious Reasons To Worry' About Economy

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Home prices have dropped across America more than expected, in a slide that has led some experts to predict that housing is headed for a double-dip.

Yet despite a glut of homes lingering in foreclosure proceedings, analysts say that a recovery in the housing market will, in large part, depend on an overall economic recovery.

Data released this week from the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index across 20 major U.S. cities fell 1.3% in October from September, the third straight national decline.

Six cities -- Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Tampa, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon -- have hit new lows since the housing market began to struggle in 2006 and 2007. Atlanta showed the steepest decline, with prices falling 2.9 percent from the prior month.

"If home prices continue on this pace down, I think the economy has serious reasons to worry," Yale economist Robert J. Shiller -- and co-creator of the Case-Shiller Index -- told the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/29/home-prices-drop_n_802325.html

[phasma ex machina]

1. 40 million under and unemployed made me worry about the economy for years. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. They got it backwards.

Actually, the economy's dropping is dragging home prices down.
Plus the fact the banks are holding onto foreclosed houses, claiming sky high values to houses that won't sell anyhow.
Thereby keeping housing prices even further from people's reach.

[Lorien]

6. Yep. nt

[Spyderama]

3. Paradigm Shift: The Palin Matrix

The Progressive Left Strikes Back! The history of how the American Empire has fallen will be released next week.

<http://www.e-tabitha.com/2010/12/smoke-mirrors.html>

[Kablooie]

4. What? The economy has never been better. Look at the corporate profits!

[JVS]

5. Good. Those houses are way too expensive for young people to afford given how shitty wages are.