FLASH: S&P Case-Shiller housing price index crashes a record 15% nationwide. Vegas down 29%, Swanndive's Phoenix down 28%, Miami down 28%

No, Lawrence Yun and the army of discredited real estate clerks on commission who said it was always a good time to buy a home do NOT want you to see this message.

S&P: Home prices tumble by record amount

NEW YORK - A widely watched housing index released Tuesday showed home prices dropping by the sharpest rate ever in the second quarter.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index tumbled a record 15.4 percent during the quarter from the same period a year ago.

The worst performing city in the index was Las Vegas, where prices plunged 28.6% year-over-year, followed by Miami, down 28.3%, and Phoenix, down 27.9%.

Here's the latest from good little REIC monkey Nicholas Retsinas at Harvard's REIC-corrupted Joint Center for Housing Studies

Home prices in have crashed by the biggest amount since the Great Depression.

There are millions of unsold, still overpriced, unwanted homes.

Foreclosures are rampant.

Congress is running around like monkeys trying to find a way out of the mess.

And yet here's the REIC's good little poodle Nicholas Retsinas, sent out by his REIC masters (i.e. Harvard JCHS sponsors) to pump housing to the all-too-gullible MSM, even after finally admitting to the crash.

Over the horizon, a housing recovery

The current housing market is bleak: home prices and sales are plummeting, foreclosure proceedings are skyrocketing and mortgage rates are on the rise.

When will things be better?

A new study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, "The State of the Nation's Housing 2008," finds the country poised to see an increase in housing demand over the next decade.

"The good news is that we still have a growing population," said Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies and one of the study's authors. "As long as you have more households, more people are going to need places to live."

Some background for HP newbies:

* Many of you will remember when Retsinas stupidly went after HP'ers after we called for his ouster. Retsinas did the classic REIC "blame the messenger" after housing crashed, exposing himself for the bought-and-paid-for REIC hack he is:

"HOUSING BUST AHEAD." The headline hints of catastrophe: a dot-com repeat, a bubble bursting, an economic apocalypse. Cassandra, though, can stop wailing: the expected price corrections mark a slowing in the rate of increase -- not a precipitous decline.

This will not spark a chain reaction that will devastate home owners, builders, and communities. Contradicting another gloomy seer, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling."

- Nicholas Retsinas, mocking HP'ers, September 2006

* Here's the Harvard JCHS's dirty list of REIC masters (since removed from their website)

* And this classic rant from Tim Iacono over at SeekingAlpha:

"Adding to the growing evidence that you can work at Harvard and still be a moron, Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies commented "The fundamental problem with housing is oversupply.''

No, the fundamental problem is that a speculative bubble just burst and now everyone is thinking rationally again - home prices are still too high, potential buyers realized home prices are still too high, lenders are now interested in the borrower actually paying back the home loan, and investors don't want to go near securitized debt."

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Aren't you glad you don't live in Southern California?

Isn't it amazing that Harvard-educated smart guys like Ben Bernanke didn't see the Housing Ponzi Scheme and Fraud Fiesta for what it truly was?

Here's Bernanke's testimony in October of 2005 - at the very height of the speculative and criminal madness of the Late Great Housing Bubble:

"House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals, including robust growth in jobs and incomes, low mortgage rates, steady rates of household formation, and factors that limit the expansion of housing supply in some areas.

House prices are unlikely to continue rising at current rates. However, as reflected in many private-sector forecasts such as the Blue Chip forecast mentioned earlier, a moderate cooling in the housing market, should one occur, would not be inconsistent with the economy continuing to grow at or near its potential next year."

And yet here's what Bernanke should have known, and simply said:

"The US and world housing markets are caught up in a speculative and fraud-filled madness, one that will come crashing down in a historic way, with many markets falling 30%, 40%, 50% and more. Housing's historic fundamentals led by the price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios have become significantly and obviously distorted by massive criminal mortgage fraud and rampant speculation. This will all end soon, and in tears."

Maybe they should put "Manias, Panics and Crashes" on the required reading list at Harvard and MIT. Pumping out ivory tower real-world-ignorant graduates like Bernanke (and Greenspan) is just such a shame.

In came the waves: Yahoo/CNN headline report today: "Where home prices could fall another 50%"

The first waves of selling and price declines these past couple of years were painful..

The final wave, the one that clears through the millions of vacant, foreclosed, overpriced, overbuilt, badly located, for sale and unwanted homes, the one that wipes away the rampant fraud and speculation, the one that gets home prices back to (or below) their historical averages, well that wave is just now coming ashore.

And that's just the US we're talking about - remember we still have a whole world to go.

And you know what, except for arrogant and sadly misinformed idiot ramen-eating realtors on commission who continue to destroy what little credibility they have left (do they have any left?) by calling bottom month after month after month, I think most people now see it coming.

Let the final wave of selling and price reductions now come ashore.

After all, as HP'ers well know, it hath been foretold.

Housing: It'll get worse

Hard hit cities like Sacramento, Phoenix and Las Vegas are set for more steep losses. Some real estate experts are bracing for price drops of as much as 50%.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With home prices plunging by more than 30% in some markets, bargain-hunters are ready to pounce.

But it may pay for buyers to wait. Many housing experts say that the worst-hit metro areas have even farther to fall, and could see total drops of as much as 50%.

"The housing boom was unprecedented in U.S. history," said Michael Youngblood, a portfolio analyst with FBR Investment Management, "and the correction will be as well."

Many erstwhile bubble cities have sustained particularly brutal hits. The median- price of a home in Sacramento, Calif. was down 35% during the three months ended May 31 compared to the same period last year, according to the real estate web site Trulia.com. In Riverside, Calif. prices fell 29%, while San Diego prices dropped 26%.

Smaller cities in California's Central Valley, such as Stockton (-39%), Modesto (-37%) and Bakersfield (-29%), also recorded steep declines.

Outside California, hard-hit markets include Phoenix (-18.8%), Las Vegas (-22%), West Palm Beach, Fla. (-32%) and Cape Coral, Fla. (-35%).

Youngblood expects that these markets will likely endure total price drops of 50% or more.

Cleaning up the mess they created: Here's what the 6%'ers are left to do now that housing has crashed and there are no buyers in sight

Here's a video thanks to Calculated Risk that helps answer our often-repeated question - 'what will they do with all these damn homes'

The answer looks to be "nothing". They just sit out in the sun, rotting away, with no buyers in sight. Empty destroyed unwanted foreclosed homes all over America. With realtors buzzing around like flies on the carcasses, and the homeless taking shelter in the shadows of fractured dreams.

It didn't have to be this way. But it is. Welcome to the post-housing-crash America.

Here's some of the home price drops by city. Can we all agree now that REALTORS and the NAR are thoroughly & forever discredited?

Chicago -10.0%
Detroit -17.9%
Larry Murphy's Las Vegas -25.9%
Connie De Groot's LA -21.7%
Miami -24.6%
Minneapolis -14.1%
Greg Swann's Phoenix -23.0%
Leslie Appleton Young's San Diego -20.5%
San Fran -20.2%
Kendra Todd's Tampa -19.6%
Lawrence Yun's Wash DC -14.7%

What will Americans cut back on the most as the housing crash continues, the Housing ATM remains closed, incomes remain flat, and inflation roars?

1) Eating out at restaurants

2) Taking nice vacations

3) Entertainment (bowling, movies, clubs, etc)

4) Shopping (clothing, cars, electronics, etc)

5) Vices (strippers, gambling, drugs and hookers)

6) Other (_______)

Scenes of monkeys running around during the greatest housing crash in human history

Who says C-span is boring. I flipping love it!

Monkeys I tell ya. Monkeys.

Why wasn't this debate going on years ago, when it could have done some good?

Memo to DC: It's too late. Let the market correct. And try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

FLASH: National Association of REALTORS reports home prices fall by biggest amount ever recorded. Lawrence Yun continues to have no credibility

Seriously, NAR, enough is enough. You have zero credibility. And every time you have Yun paraded out to spew more bullsh*t, you just look stupid. Even more stupid than you looked the day before.

PEOPLE OF AMERICA - DO NOT TRUST THE NAR OR ANY REALTOR ON COMMISSION. THEY ARE ENEMIES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS.

Home Prices Post Steepest Drop in 26 Years

Single-family home prices dropped 7.7% in the first quarter in the largest year-over-year decline since the National Association of Realtors began reporting prices in 1982

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of NAR, attributed much of the record decline to liquidity problems dragging down high-priced markets.

"These are highly unusual results because there were very few jumbo loan originations in the latest quarter," he said. "So sales are much slower in high-cost areas."

Jump on the foreclosure bus! You'll see kids playing on roofs, homes that 'slope' and realtors saying anything to make 6%

Foreclosure bus tours like this hilarious one in housing crash California won't be total fun until they do one of former realtor homes though...

"Next stop will be Greg Swann's former home in Phoenix. After that we'll be looking at Kendra Todd's investment condos, and then a tour of the mothballed Trump units"

Now that's a tour I'd enjoy! Funny too that it's a "three hour tour". A three hour tour? A three hour tour? Hmmm... "The weather started getting rough, ... "

Thank Frank for the link..

A three-hour tour of foreclosed homes

The Foreclosure Bus took potential homebuyers and investors to several repossessed properties.

FLASH: Here's the latest S&P Case-Shiller numbers that Lawrence Yun, the NAR and realtors on commission like Greg Swann do NOT want you to see

"We think the housing market has now hit bottom"

- Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Propagandist, January 2007

"The BubbleBloggers will someday bawl balefully in private, but they will never, ever admit that they have been very publicly very foolish."

- Greg Swann, America's Most Discredited REALTOR™, July 2006

_______________

Housing prices post record declines - Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix all saw prices plummet by at least 20%.

Home prices posted another record decline, as most of the nation's largest markets suffered double-digit drops over last year, a survey released Tuesday shows.

The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks 20 of the largest housing markets, showed prices plummeting by 12.7% in the 12 months ending February. That's the biggest fall since the index began tracking prices in 2000.

"There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers," S&P spokesman said David M. Blitzer, said in a prepared statement. "Prices of single family homes continue to drop across the nation."

Atlanta -5.6%
Boston -4.6%
Charlotte 1.5%
Chicago -8.5%
Cleveland -9.2%
Dallas -4.1%
Denver -5.5%
Detroit -16.5%
Las Vegas -22.8%
Los Angeles -19.4%
Miami -21.7%
Minneapolis -12.5%
New York -6.6%
Phoenix -20.8%
Portland -2.0%
San Diego -19.2%
San Francisco -17.2%
Seattle -2.7%
Tampa -17.5%
Washington -13.0%
20-city composite -12.7%

Bernanke's plan: Stopping massive deflation with massive inflation and hope it all comes out in the wash

Grocery prices are soaring. Gas prices are soaring. Hell, most prices are soaring. Thank you Helicopter Ben.

But about the only thing that ISN'T soaring is the price of homes. In the middle of this rampant (consumables) inflation and dollar destruction, you have historic (asset price) deflation. Just as most HP'ers have predicted.

Eventually though, home prices will stop falling. Probably quite some time from now, when the historic housing P/E ratio is restored, confidence is somewhat restored, pre-bubble prices are back, and it's cheaper to 'own' than rent.

And when that happens, and home prices stop falling or god forbid start going up, the NAR and the few realtors who are left will start saying "home prices stable!". But when you factor in the wild inflation underway (the real inflation, not the government-reported inflation), real home prices will still be in freefall, and the crash will have been much worse than people think, and the combination of flat incomes, job losses and rising consumable and service prices will be devastating.

Here's a new editorial on the inflation solution, which is well underway I believe. Meanwhile, got gold? Got food?

The Inflation Solution to the Housing Mess

The policy alternatives in the post-housing-bubble world are painfully unpleasant. In my view, the least bad option is for the Federal Reserve to print money to help stabilize housing prices and financial markets.

Yes, use reflation to soften the pain for Main Street and Wall Street. If instead we let housing prices fall another 25%-30% – as predicted by the Case-Shiller Home Price Index – it's almost certain that Washington will end up nationalizing the mortgage business.

While there is a substantial risk that inflation may rise for a time – this would be the policy goal – monetization is more easily reversible than nationalization of the mortgage market.

Yale's Shiller says housing crash may exceed the Great Depression's 30% fall. And HP'ers ask - "yeah, and that's like news to anyone?"

We told you what was going to happen.

And then it happened.

We weren't smarter than anyone. We just read Manias, Panics and Crashes.

Too bad people didn't listen. Too bad people didn't do their own research. And too bad people listened to idiot realtors on commission. Hopefully they never will again.

A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO ANYONE THINKING OF CATCHING A FALLING KNIFE TODAY - DON'T DO IT. WE'RE JUST STARTING. HOMEDEBTORSHIP IN THIS ENVIRONMENT IS THE WORST FINANCIAL MISTAKE YOU COULD EVER MAKE. AND DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO WOULD EARN A COMMISSION IF THEY COULD CON YOU INTO TAKING OUT A MORTGAGE OR 'BUYING' A DEPRECIATING HOUSE.

Yale’s Shiller: U.S. Housing Slump May Exceed Great Depression

Yale University economist Robert Shiller, pioneer of Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index, said there’s a good chance housing prices will fall further than the 30% drop in the historic depression of the 1930s. Home prices nationwide already have dropped 15% since their peak in 2006, he said.

“I think there is a scenario that they could be down substantially more,” Mr. Shiller said during a speech at the New Haven Lawn Club.

Mr. Shiller, who admitted he has a reputation for being bearish, said real estate cycles typically take years to correct. Home prices rose about 85% from 1997 to 2006 adjusted for inflation, the biggest national housing boom in U.S. history, Mr. Shiller said. “Basically we’re in uncharted territory,” he said. “It seems we have developed a speculative culture about housing that never existed on a national basis before.” Many people became convinced that housing prices would increase 10% annually, a notion Mr. Shiller called crazy.

Thank you Alan Greenspan, Angelo Mozilo and the realtors of America for ruining families. Hope it was worth it.

Hope it was worth it, you know, all those profits. All those commissions. All those bonuses. Meanwhile, watch for the divorce rate in the US to soar. Along with the crime rate, the domestic violence rate, the foreclosure rate, the murder rate, the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, the bankruptcy rate, ..........

Home Mortgage Crisis May Boost Divorces in U.S., Experts Say

The home mortgage crisis in the United States has spawned problems in the mortgage, real estate and banking industries, and many consumers are now facing mortgage payment increases in the coming months that could cause the number of home foreclosures to climb even higher. And all of those financial woes may be spawning another problem as well -- an increase in divorces, experts say.

Scott Daniels, an Ocala, Fla. Realtor, doesn’t need a study to tell him what he already knows -- the mortgage industry crisis is causing an increase in the number of couples who are getting divorced.

"In the last three months, we have accepted five listings which are divorce sales. In each instance, it’s due to the obligation of meeting their mortgage payments,” he wrote in a blog he posts regularly on the Internet. “Faced with pressure, these couples are blaming one another! Rather than attempt to work together to resolve the problem, they find it easier to separate. They each have in common the same exact problem: No one is able to make a decision on what price to sell for! "

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away...

You could get a $500,000 mortgage with no job, no income, no assets...

realtors were making money...

Casey Serin thought he was gonna get rich...

Angelo Mozilo was seen as a captain of industry...

George Bush's "ownership society" didn't seem like such a bad idea...

Ridiculously low interest rates made the price of anything seem irrelevant...

HELOCs had money falling from the sky...

Lawrence Yun hadn't destroyed his career...

The dollar could buy things...

CDO's, SIV's, HELOC's, MBS's, CLO's...

Bubble bloggers were "brown shirts", "cassandras", "foolish" and "chicken littles"

Home prices were going up...

Illegal immigrants were embraced and employed...

And homes were get-rich-quick lottery tickets...

The collective consciousness when it comes to housing has changed - 60% of Americans say they will definitely not buy a home in the next two years.

Sorry realtors. We win. You lose.

And these numbers are just gonna get worse.

AP Poll: More Avoid Buying Homes - Growing Majority Avoid Buying Homes As Pessimism Over Housing Crisis Grows

A growing majority say they won't buy a home anytime soon, the latest sign of increasing pessimism about the nation's housing crisis, a poll showed Monday.

In a vivid sketch of how the sputtering real estate market is causing distress throughout the country, the Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll found that more than a quarter of homeowners worry their home will lose value over the next two years. Fully one in seven mortgage holders fear they won't be able to make their monthly payments on time over the next six months.

Sixty percent said they definitely won't buy a home in the next two years, up from 53 percent who said so in an AP-AOL poll in September 2006. At the same time, just 11 percent are certain or very likely to buy soon, down from 15 percent two years ago.

577 days on the market, $500,000 in price cuts, and still no buyer... Welcome to the Epic SoCal Housing Crash

Happy 3rd SoCalBubble

And damn, this is one f*cked homedebtor... I'll offer $200k. Someone wake me up when they get there.

2023 South Capella CT
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Listing Price History

Date Price
Jan 28, 2007 $1,099,000
Feb 07, 2007 $1,049,000
Feb 11, 2007 $999,000
Feb 13, 2007 $965,000
Feb 23, 2007 $935,000
May 16, 2007 $925,000
Jul 12, 2007 $899,000
Aug 15, 2007 $889,000
Aug 28, 2007 $875,000
Sep 11, 2007 $860,000
Oct 16, 2007 $799,000
Nov 15, 2007 $789,000
Jan 16, 2008 $719,000
Jan 29, 2008 $649,900
Today: $599,000

Housing nightmare: Your home is crashing in value, you lost your mortgage broker job, you can't refinance, and you've maxed out your home equity loan

So what is the "Ultimate Great Housing Crash Nightmare Scenario"?

You just know there are a millions and millions of people who made really bad decisions these past few years, who are regretting them now. Kent and Mysti from the other day were a good example, but there's many more out there even worse off than that.

So what's the worst it can be?

My take - anyone who's housing screwed can just walk away. Turn in the keys. Go rent. Find a new job. It's just money, it wasn't your house anyway, and there are more important things in life.

And next time, don't listen to anyone on commission. They'll screw you every time.

Here's an expose on two laid-off New Century subprime execs, with over $10,000 a month in mortgage and other expenses, and a home crashing in value

So, should we feel sorry for them? Or happy to see their downfall as they helped create the problem?

Hundreds of thousands of REIC are going to be financially ruined during the downfall (along with millions of Americans). But they created the downfall which financially ruined them.

Oh, what to feel HP'ers? What to feel?

Schadenfreude? Mercy? Compassion? Rage? Forgiveness? I guess it'll be a case-by-case basis. First steps would be an apology, taking the blame, and an admission of guilt. And I don't think I've seen that from ANY realtor, mortgage broker, appraiser or REIC member yet. But damn, I can't but help feel sorry for these people. Everyone except Greg Swann that is.

Careers vanish after subprime 'free fall'

Kent and Mysti Cope were well-paid executives at subprime lenders who never thought the industry could disappear overnight. Now they're just trying to get by.