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View Full Version : "How they got housing wrong"


Capricious
12-28-2007, 06:59 AM
http://tinyurl.com/2nphce



(2) opinions:




"...The National Association of Realtors made a forecast a year ago that was far more optimistic than those by Wyss and many other economists. The Realtors expected only a 1 percent drop in the pace of existing home sales, and a 1 percent gain in median prices. Instead, 2007 will likely end with a 12.5 percent plunge in the pace of sales, and nearly a 2 percent drop in prices, the first such decline on record...."


"...The group's current forecast for 2008 calls for a 0.5 percent increase in the pace of sales, and a 0.3 percent rebound in prices...."





vs.





"...one group was on target about where prices would go - investors in a real estate futures market that he helped set up on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange...."

"..By the end of 2006 those futures were pointing to real estate price declines between 5 percent and 7 percent in those markets, Shiller said. That ended up in line with the 6.7 percent annual decline in the October reading of S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, which was the largest drop recorded in that 20-year-old price measure...."

"...Those futures today are far more bearish about future housing prices than most current economists - foreseeing an additional 4 percent to 14 percent drop in prices over the next year...."





Your local mileage may vary.

SHELLY
12-28-2007, 02:23 PM
People still don't grasp the seriousness of this problem...even when they see photos like this:

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/photo_servlet?contentId=5276114&version=1&locale=EN-US&subtype=MIMG&siteId=1024&isP16=true