Replies

LOL!

YOU get to reprint articles published by "Realtors", but I don't get to, because of "Realtor" "bias".

I guess you think the Realtors are "biased" because they are too stupid to see that a flood of panic-induced realty sales would generate lush commissions for them. LOL!

Anyway, here's a non-realtor source:

"NATIONAL HOUSING WOES THREATEN CONTINUED ECONOMIC GROWTH
UH Economist Smith Says Bayou City Better off During
“Housing Bust: How Soon? How Bad?”

HOUSTON, May 2, 2006 – Despite some optimistic predictions of a “soft landing” for the nation’s housing market, University of Houston economist Barton Smith says those prospects remain rather shaky.

There are a sufficient number of markets throughout the nation that are so vulnerable to a major market correction that it is unlikely that the U.S. economy as a whole will be able to escape some negative consequences. However, the most positive aspect of the current situation is that many urban markets, especially in the nation’s mid-section, will escape most of the direct blow and only feel the secondary impacts associated with the subsequent national economic slowdown.

FORTUNATELY, HOUSTON IS AMONG THIS LATTER GROUP."

During his annual real estate symposium, Smith pointed to excessively high prices and extremely low affordability in about a quarter of the nation’s home markets as well as a dangerous rise in sub-prime lending that is already producing high levels of foreclosures. In that regard, Houston is not exempt. Local foreclosures are three times higher than they were just three years ago...

As a part of his presentation, Smith contrasted the current environment with the last housing market correction of the early ’90s. The post correction spike in home prices looks very much the same. The environment of rising interest rates is also similar. But, he reminded his audience that the real estate bust of the early ’90s was spread across all types of real estate from residential to commercial to land. Today, he said, the only market in real jeopardy is the residential market. That ought to help minimize the spillover effects to the national economy as a whole. Nonetheless, the consumer, who accounts for three-quarters of aggregate demand in this country, is extremely vulnerable right now. A significant blow to the value of their most important asset would not be good for the national economic expansion that is already beginning to slow.

HOUSTON, ON THE OTHER HAND, WILL BE CUSHIONED BY A HOUSING MARKET THAT IS STILL VERY AFFORDABLE AND A REGIONAL ECONOMY THAT IS REAPING THE BENEFIT OF HIGH ENERGY PRICES..."

I should have mentioned: "Emphasis supplied".