Barry Ritholtz: A Housing Bottom Is Nowhere In Sight

It's so sad some feel so cheated by being underwater and by how they are treated at work financially. We always have to keep in mind, that even if you are good at the work you do, that that doesn't mean a magic karma will protect us in our pursuits outside or inside of the work environment. First of all, a woman, even if she is a feminazi should not hold the belief that she should pay half the mortgage - under any circumstance; you only boosted the prices and if your husband had only one income he couldn't offer yours as well, and this was done in mass #'s because they want to tie the woman to the workforce through force, and it backfired on their azz and it was such a costly mistake it was more expensive to even have her work. Take the initiative and don't follow the crowd and feel no need to prove some point of your own worth. Also, you have to sometimes fight for what you want at work, and with the right person. It's how you do it, when you do it, and who you do it with. You've got to go directly to the right person and say the right thing, and sometimes you have to ensure others more senior get something before you do or you never will because they aren't a fighter and will let it go on forever but then get back in various ways that isn't fair on anyone.

It's just nonsense that every person is expected to work when this is and always has been an impossibility. No wonder so many people have nothing. They just all thought they were due something that #1) was a fake illusion and #2) is an impossibility. If you get these things they are a nice surprise; it's not something you should expect and demand; the person should be good enough as you find them, and if you aren't capable of this with anyone, you are the one that needs all of the work - no one else. A platinum guarantee is platinum expensive - like a guaranteed neighborhood...the same is true with people. With homes and people even if you don't realize it, the homes have already been picked over by realtors and whoever else before you get to see what's on the market...so you're already at a loss. You aren't getting the cream of the crop; you don't even know what that is. WIth people; your only hope is if there is a job there for you, not a lottery ticket.

It could fall alot more. The getting in deal is good for me now, but the prices could fall alot and not all homes are on the market. Even at half off they are far far overpriced....I will sign another years rental lease. It's taking them forever to deal with this nonsense and they're playing too many games in not releasing all homes, so I guess they want to make less money.

We must invest in NASA, we must escape from this crazy planet

I sold my home a year ago for a profit, but only for the following reasons... It was the best maintained home in the neighborhood. It had a very nice layout with plenty of upgrades. Move in ready in every sense. There is a limited pent up market of willing home buyers who qualify for mortgages and have the funds available for down payments. But the operative word is "limited", and they are extremely choosy, knowing they are in the drivers seat with plenty of homes to choose from. A large number of the homes in the upper middle class neighborhood I left behind are falling into various forms of disrepair... roofs, driveways, windows et cetera need to be replaced, or they have become rental properties. No surprise considering the economic stress many Americans find themselves in, or the fact many do not want to throw good money after bad. The idea this short-term blip of buying is somehow the beginning of a turn around is foolish. Bottom line, the number of Americans who qualify, who are in financial position to buy a home are few, and they will only buy the nicest, best maintained home. That leaves a huge inventory of not so nice abodes that might never sell, at least not at satisfactory prices. America has entered a new paradigm of working poor, a home a luxury many cannot begin to afford. The shadow inventory of homes wanted to be sold is much much larger than the pollyannaish pundits claim. Home prices will continue to fall in this environment, pushing the number of underwater home owners, foreclosures, walk aways ever higher. It is going to get much more ugly before it gets better. Bulldozers may be the only plausible answer in the future.

Just like a sinking ship,housing has landed upon an oceanic shelf,but,the abyss is yet to come !

The Federal Reserve facilitated the housing boom and banking "crisis". Now they are buying the bad loans from the Banking Cartel at full value and selling the homes to their friends.
At no point in it's history has the Fed acted with the interests of the American People as it's priority. Audit them and shut these criminals down!

I live south of Atlanta and I know personally of 10 people that have just walked away from their homes(250,000 and up) in the last 6 months. The homes are just sitting there. My circle of friends is very small and i am not in the housing business so if I know of 10 then it is still happening everywhere and will continue to depress housing prices. I know others that will probably leave this year. BOA branch manager showed a buddy of mine a private stack of paper 5 inches thick of houses they are sitting on and he was told every branch has a stack like that. Housing will contiue to decay even if REITS step in and buy billions wholesale from Banks and FNM and form National rental agencies becasue homes have always been best kept by the love and care of an owner occupied. National rental agencies wont give a darn except for ROI period.

Curious to know what would happen if everyone in America with a mortgage just stopped paying. Basically perform some type of financial coup?

I am not an Anarchist, or suggesting this by any means, I just thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss.

The people that were scammed into buying a home with those Housing Tax Credits right after the bubble popped must be feeling pretty dumb right about now…

It's actually really easy. Hosing will hit bottom when the Fed raises interest rates to semi normal levels (about 2% to 3%),, and unemployment drops below 6%. It's really not that difficult to figure out. A bottom now? please...

In 2006 I posted that housing would take 10 years to bottom = 2016. Everyone said that was nuts. What do you think now?

Bottom will be when housing becomes affordable to the most number of people and is more advantageous than renting.

And here in Lees Summit Missouri, near Kansas City, houses are still being built and then for sale signs sitting on them. Who is in Charge and letting this happen?

You think prices are dropping fast now... just wait until the Baby Boomers retire en mass and need to sell their empty 4 bedroom 3.5 bath to pad their retirement fund.

Housing cannot bottom until working people can afford them with their paychecks. Since compensation in private industry is paid based on 1980 wages the end is far from in sight. IN 1980 workers based on the toil index had to work 42 hours a month to cover housing now they have to work 102 hours.

Ritholtz' thinking appears to be in line with the people who predicted our "unforeseeable" housing decline. People like Schilling, Schiff, Prechter, etc., predicted the bursting of the bubble; and at the same time, most also predicted it would be 2014-16 before the bottom would be in. And let's not forget, prices usually bump along the bottom for a decade or so after the bottom is in.

Once the maket goes down another 50% I might buy.......If the seller throws in a free car.

The housing comeback will be slooooowwww! As well as the economy in general. The global economic picture is terrible.

The real crash won't occur until interest rates go up.

Now is just time for all the suckers to buy in.