If your town's housing market had to "mark to market", how steep of a fall from the 2005 peak would it be looking at today?

"Mark to Market" - what is the true price that a seller would expect to realize on the open market to gain a sale TODAY?

Let's hear it. Enough of the BS we hear from the MSM, US government, NAR and homedebtors.

What's the reality on main street today?

Be real.

Instead of slashing house prices for all to see, desperate builders go crazy with incentives, and increase the blatant realtor bribes

Got a few thousand homes that nobody can buy anymore, that are still insanely overpriced? Well, seems like the best thing to do at that point is cut the price, right? As in drastically cut the price?

Nope, not if you're a desperate new homebuilder. If you simply slash the price, then you've essentially "Marked to Market" (there's those damn three words again) your entire inventory of unsold homes - and also those of your competitors. And then it would be clear to everyone that the game was over.

So what are they doing? They're blatantly distorting the "median price", and are out trying to move dead inventory with crazy incentives, which in my book is simply mortgage fraud as the home is wildly overappraised versus true value. Plus they're paying bribes to realtors to steer unsuspecting sheeple into overpriced sh*tshacks. Yup, gotta love those meaningless NAR ethics.

Here's some of the incentives: No payments for X months. We'll pay your property tax and home insurance. Free cars. $100,000 upgrade packages. Pools. Garages. Closing costs. Flooring. And hookers & cocaine (well, not yet, but just wait)

And don't forget, in the middle of all this, there's blatant collusion and pricefixing now amongst the homebuilders... FLASHBACK: Here's Hovnanian's desperate CEO a few days ago, in complete violation of price fixing statutes:

"Raise prices," he said. "Buyers aren't buying because they think you're going to lower prices again. There's interest but there's fear. Raise prices 3-4 percent. And quit giving discounts.''

Here's the article on incentives. So remember, when you hear the NAR and US Government numbers on housing median prices, just laugh. And laugh and laugh some more.

Perks, Price Cuts Become More Lavish As Developers Grow Increasingly Desperate; Would You Like a Pool With That?

With the housing market looking increasingly frail, home builders and real-estate agents are going to new extremes to attract buyers, dangling lavish incentives and slashing prices.

Builders generally try to avoid outright price markdowns, in part because it angers prior home buyers who don't want prices in their subdivisions forced down.

In markets such as Denver and Seattle, builders are increasingly willing to pay agents substantially larger commissions -- as much as 4% of the home's sales price, up from 1.5% or less -- to help unload inventory homes

Is "median" the best way to understand what's happening with home prices

Home prices are in freefall - just look at the exploding supply, the incredible drop in demand and the surge in how long it takes to sell, and you know what's happening (and what's going to keep happening) with prices. Econ 101.

Also, there is no reputable organization who can document prices (what, we're going to listen to the realtors?). Especially since incentives and cash back are not part of the equation.

But today's question is on HOW prices are reported by the NAR and in the MSM - the use of "median" - half above and half below.

Here's 10 homes:

100,000

100,000

100,000

100,000

200,000

________ median

200,000

300,000

500,000

600,000*

1,000,000

The median price in this city is $200,000

But we all know what's happening is that the biggest haircuts are coming at the middle and top of the range - the stupid houses and condos that had no business selling for way above people's incomes. You know, that $600,000* 1-bedroom apartment in Phoenix bought by a flipper with a liar's loan. So that falls to $400,000 (for now). Heck, that $1,000,000 unaffordable house bought on a cash-back at close deal also falls 20% let's say, to $800,000.

In the above example, the median price for this city is still $200,000

Anyone see the problem? Try selling a $600,000 1-bedroom apartment in Phoenix and you will.

Reports of increases and decreases in home prices are typically quoted as changes in the median home price. This can be misleading because changes in the median price doesn't indicate how much appreciation or depreciation has taken place.

The median price is the price that is midway between the least expensive and most expensive home sold in an area during a given period of time. During that time, half the buyers bought homes that cost more than the median price and half bought homes for less than the median price.

Changes in median price measure changes in market activity. When there are more buyers buying less expensive homes than there are buyers buying more expensive homes, the median price falls. Conversely, when there are more buyers buying more expensive homes than there are buyers buying less expensive homes, the median price rises.