Diegetics

I am becoming more and more convinced that there will be another leg down in the RE market. There is an ocean of homes in the urban realms here that are reduced price that have sat on the market for a year or more and counting. At some point a percentage of these people/banks will have to sell to recover whatever they can, and we'll have another price collapse. I don't know the when. Not yet. But we're watching.

Sounds like a good thing to me. When houses stop being about speculation and start being about homes again, and housing prices are low and affordable, then that's good for America.

Except for all the people that will go bankrupt and or retire penniless.

Little early to handicap the net, still a wild ride ahead.

Life is in many ways a gamble. You have to make your best guesses.

There is another problem with the way the market is going. Some people, even if they aren't counting on their home as an investment per se, are counting on at least some appreciation to occur in order to help with large repairs, like a new roof. So what we will be seeing also is more homes in advanced states of disrepair.

If I had to put a new roof on my house right now, I don't know if I could. Not the way things have been going.

Interesting point. Adding to that anecdotally, the home improvement mania seems to be dying because people are realizing they won't get their money back out of it. Having a $250,000 house with $50,000 in improvements is not the same as having a $300,000 house.

Yeah, it is a good point.

What happens to MERS is the big indicator. Right now, any mortgage that has touched MERS is clouded.