HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

If the NAR and REALTORS on COMMISSION didn't have monopoly control over the MLS, and America's bribed congressmen in their pocket, would they stand any chance of stealing 6%?

Bonus Question - will the MLS still be the dominant monopoly property listing service in five years?

David Lereah, the most discredited economist in world history, finally admits housing crash going to get worse, expects US home values to plummet 20%

No, this is not a joke.

David Lereah, the thoroughly discredited former Chief Cheerleader for the evil National Association of realtors, publisher of the hilarious comedy "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust", and pinata for this blog among others, has come out of his self-imposed hole.

Hey, a guy has to make a living somehow, right?

So Lereah has these gems in Newsweek - and no, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

"We're not at the bottom," he says. "[People] want it to be near the bottom, but we're not there yet. The leading indicators are still very bad. Pending home sales are still in bad shape. Mortgage applications are low … There's still supply out there in abundance … This thing is going to get worse before it gets better."

"We're probably going to end up with a 20 percent [decline], but if I'm wrong it will be even more than that"

"I didn't think this would turn into an all-out bursting of a balloon for the whole nation"

"That (lending) got so out of hand, and none of us realized the magnitude of it until it was too late."

Go ahead HP'ers. Destroy this man. Unload with both barrels. Until we get a sincere apology from Lereah for the destruction and pain he's caused, and a complete and total repudiation of his former employer the National Association of Deceptive Used Home Sellers and his replacement stooge Lawrence Yun, he's still fair game.

And for the idiots calling bottom, when the former Chief Housing Cheerleader FINALLY comes out of his hole to admit how horrifically, historically wrong he was, how bad it is, and how bad it's gonna get, any sane person should understand that when it comes to home prices, WE'RE NOWHERE NEAR BOTTOM.

The results are in... and the death of the realtor profession can't come fast enough

HP Poll Results:

realtors are:

Liars	521 (62%)
Conmen	505 (60%)
Thieves	401 (47%)
Immoral	457 (54%)
No longer needed	593 (70%)
Leaches	472 (56%)
Forever discredited	507 (60%)

Votes so far: 837
Poll closed

There are two sides to the housing crash debate.

You have HP'ers and a slew of real economists who predicted the housing crash before it happened, and now it's happening. And we're also saying we have much, much farther to fall, and that this crash will go worldwide. It's the fundamentals stupid, and they're still WAY out of whack.

And then you have the clueless realtors, mortgage brokers, title agents and other REIC whose livelihoods depend on people NOT wising up, even though they probably know deep down that this whole thing was a giant Ponzi Scheme and mania, but don't want to admit it to others, or even themselves.

Well, here's a hilarious and kinda sad post from that side of the coin, thanks to an eagle-eyed HP'er. You just have to read the comments. You can literally smell the denial, and hatred for sites like HP who popped their precious bubble.

What's funny is that many view HP'ers as pessimists. Actually, we're optimists - we're optimistic that home prices are going to keep crashing, until they come back to reality. We're optimistic that hundreds of thousands of unethical realtors and mortgage brokers are going to go away. And we're optimistic that people are going to be smarter in the future with their money, and with who they trust with financial decisions.

I feel like I'm reading something out of a history book, describing the denial, the cluelessness and the complete lack of a financial education that helped cause the mania, and was still alive and well even as the mania collapsed.

As long as we pay closer attention to the media than we do our own common sense, we will not be at the bottom. The media preaches that we are not at the bottom and when we listen, we confirm that. We keep waiting, and that keeps the perpetuation of the downturn in motion.

We must understand that the moment we feel we are at the bottom, we will be. When investors think the best deals are now, they will be. However, when we listen to those who keep stating that we are not there yet and believe them, we will make them right.

And here's a few choice comments for your reading pleasure...

* It seems like I run into a consumer every day who truly believes the market will continue to plunge. Those same consumers are going to feel pretty silly when they realize the market has turned and they missed the boat!

* As always, you hit the nail on the head. It's a great time to buy, NOW!!!!

* “Smart People Are Buying Real Estate Now”. I love that saying

Greg Swann admits that the Phoenix housing market has crashed. I guess the Brown Shirts and Flying Monkeys at HP were right after all, eh?

HP'ers favorite discredited Phoenix realtor Greg Swann (he who shall not be linked) admitted the other day in the Arizona Republic that Phoenix housing prices have crashed 24% from the peak (thanks HP'ers for the lead).

So should we now expect locusts and wormwood? Along with the assorted flying pigs and hot times in hell of course.

He was great at unprofessional name calling and bluster, but if you wanted sound, rational, unbiased housing market analysis, you were MUCH better off going elsewhere. It's the 6% HP'ers - it makes people say and do stupid things.

Here was his hilarious admission this week:

"Values for an average suburban Phoenix home were down 14.66% year-over-year. That doesn’t sound too bad, but prices were down almost six percent just in December. We’re down 24% from the peak in December of 2005, on average"

Yet here he was in 2006, when he was pissing on HP'ers as sewer-living Brown Shirts and Flying Monkeys who would be proven wrong:

"To lurk among the BubbleBloggers and their seething commentariat is to acquire an education in a slice of America invisible from this side of the sewer gratings. Notwithstanding the idiotic economic analysis, which is really no worse than the static-market fallacies paraded as profundities in the pages of the Arizona Republic, these sites — and not just HousingPanic — are infested with a cult-like fever to inflict suffering — at second hand, to be sure — on people who are in fact guilty of nothing except failing to have drunk the BubbleBlogger KoolAde."

"The BubbleBloggers will someday bawl balefully in private, but they will never, ever admit that they have been very publicly very foolish. You will know and I will know and in the secret chambers of their hearts they will know they were wrong all along. But as long as you don’t hold your breath waiting for that contrite admission of error, you should be fine."

So, I guess the question is, when do we get Swanndive's contrite admission of error? And how do his financially devastated former victims (I mean clients - if he had any) get their money back?

I think this embarrassing about-face shows just how bad it's getting for the ramen eaters now. The NAR talking points are out the window, and in a desperate attempt to make 6%, they're trying the one and only thing they haven't tried before:

The truth.

It's Lawrence Yun, the NAR and 1.2 million realtors against HousingPANIC and the truth

Bring it on Larry.

I like our odds.

You're hated, discredited, and seen as a liar and a joke. Your morally bankrupt organization put out lies and disinformation that led to millions losing everything, trillions in losses, and an economic meltdown. And your 6% minions represent the least trusted profession in America.

And we just tell it like it is.

Yun said media-fueled consumer anxiety has caused the real estate market to be slower than it should be given the job market, household wealth, relatively low mortgage rates and falling home prices.

"This is the battle we're fighting, the consumer confidence battle," Yun said. "(The information) is implying that clearly there is excessive pessimism in the marketplace."

HP Open Thread to talk about how disgusted you are with realtors and mortgage brokers

Crack dealers

Child pornographers

Pedophile priests

Pimps

realtors

Mortgage brokers

After this whole thing melts down, and people are disgusted by real estate, right or wrong the realtors and mortgage brokers are going to take most of the blame. Sure, there's probably some nice and honest folks hidden amongst 'em. But as a class, these two professions are doomed.

Their commission-fueled lies and bad behavior these past few years will not be forgotten soon.

In honor of HP's 2 year birthday, I give you Suzanne, the realtor on commission, and a couple making the worst financial mistake of their lives

Two years of doing the blog and this is the gift that keeps on giving. I could watch this video 100 times a day. Well, maybe not. But damn, it sure is a hoot every time I see it.

Enjoy! And let this be a reminder as to why you should never, EVER, listen to a realtor on commission.

SUZANNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

The monkeys at the NAR want you to believe it's a great time to be financially ruined (and take out a mortgage on a depreciating asset)

Monkeys I tell ya..

I especially liked these out-and-out lies and disinformation (with my comments of course)

* When you have a family it's always a good time to buy (why, is it a good idea to bankrupt your family? odd.)

* It didn't make sense for us spend the same amount of money renting something when we can own it (what, someone offer you an negative-am, no-down, teaser rate option-arm?)

* In this market there's a lot of options (well, that is true. 100,000 unwanted homes on the market in Phoenix alone. But why is that? Because they're WAY overpriced!)

* Prices are favorable (huh! prices are not even close to where they're going to be a year from now - much much much lower!)