HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Will single people start asking prospective partners what their "mortgage status" is before considering whether or not to date them? Shouldn't they?

- Renters: Good to go

- Own free and clear: Good to go

- Bought before 2002, never HELOCed or Housing ATMed: Good to go

- No-down option ARM negative equity mortgage: Get lost you pathetic loser!

- Took out a 90%+ mortgage in 2003 - 2007: Sorry, gotta run!

Think real estate clerks are compulsive liars? Now even the Desperate Homedebtors are too

Ah, gotta love Desperate Homedebtors and REALTORS, especially during these desperate times. Now they're even photoshopping their sh*tholes to make 'em look better on the internets.

Guess which picture is fake? And who do they think they're fooling?

I'd suggest they photoshop in a "motivated seller - price reduced" sign too...

A record 58,257 Phoenix bag-holders (aka "Desperate Homedebtors") are wondering today "where did all the buyers go"

Ah, a classic and inevitable end of a grand Ponzi Scheme is now unfolding in Phoenix. A sight to behold HP'ers. Textbook.

Phoenix, bottom line, you're screwed. Sorry to say. But it was your own doing.

50% appreciation in 2005? What a joke. Your fake economy was built on the back of a corrupt and out of control REIC, your homes are not worth 100% more than they were just a few years ago, and now your economy will collapse due to out of control mortgage fraud, massive REIC layoffs, out of control illegal immigration, and basic human greed.

Good luck out there Phoenix. You're gonna need it.

HousingPANIC Stupid Questions of the Day

Why do people with massive amounts of debt, no savings and negative net worth THINK they're rich?

Why do people think people with massive amounts of debt, no savings and negative net worth ARE rich?

What was it about Phoenix?

The biggest housing mania (followed by the biggest collapse)

Rampant cash-back mortgage fraud

Rings of corrupt realtors, mortgage brokers and appraisers

Out of control homebuilders now stuck with massive dead inventory

Home of get-rich-quick con-men and liars

A fake economy propped up short-term by scummy REIC

And the inspiration behind three of the most popular bubble blogs

So, what was it about Phoenix?

Asking prices in the Phoenix area have dropped about 25% this year, says David Khalaj, an agent at Realty Executives.

Existing single-family home sales tumbled 34% in the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year, and condo sales were off 24%.

Construction permits for single-family homes were down 23% through August.

The declines appear so dramatic because Phoenix's housing market last year (and for the past several years) was so hyperinflated.

"Last year was just one of those atrocities that happens rarely," in terms of bidding wars and soaring prices, says Camille Sullivan, also an agent at Realty Executives. "I've never seen it before, and I've been doing this for 25 years. It was a very difficult time."

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Do real estate clerks now (finally) understand what is happening to the housing market, and to their jobs and future prospects?

Or are they really as dumb, clueless and naive as they seem to be?

At least 2.1 million vacant homes for sale in America, millions more on the way, and people are still calling "bottom"

Highest number of vacancies every recorded (goes back 40 years). More unwanted unneeded homes being added to inventory everyday by builders and desperate homedebtors. Demand cratering just as supply overwhelms.

Yup, looks like a bottom to me.

Not.

I don't get people who keep calling bottoms. Sure, you have The Corrupt David Lereah - he's paid to lie. But then you get the Lowes CEO this week saying that even though retail sales at his chain are plummeting, "We are encouraged by indications that our sales trends have bottomed."

Man, talk about missing the memo.

Even Bob Toll isn't calling bottom anymore, realizing he not only looked the fool last time he did that, but that there's this little thing called the SEC, and this little policy called Sarbanes Oxley, and you can't go out and just tell bald-face lies when you're the company's largest shareholder and CEO. No matter how much you want to pop your stock so you can keep unloading.

And finally, with those 2.1 million vacant homes, with millions more on the way, with nobody interested in buying them, my only questions are....

How fricking ugly will this get? And what year will we truly bottom?

Vacant Homes For Sale Cloud Economic Hopes

Amid brightening hopes that the U.S. housing market is stabilizing, some economists are zeroing in on a piece of data that could augur badly for the consensus view: the homeowner vacancy rate.

That figure, an often-overlooked measure of how many homes for sale in the country are empty, has climbed to its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking it four decades ago. Last week, the bureau said that in the final three months of 2006 there were about 2.1 million vacant homes for sale.

That brought the national homeowner vacancy rate to 2.7%, up from 2.0% a year ago.