Homes will be cheaper a year from now than they are today in nearly all markets worldwide

Is that statement True or False?

George Bush - soon to be on the run after bankrupting blacks and hispanics with his Great Housing Ponzi Scheme

Here's George W. Bush, The Worst President Ever, pumping the housing Ponzi Scheme in 2002, launching his Big Con to get the last suckers in (blacks, hispanics and "subprimers") with toxic loans that would end up bankrupting them and taking down the economy:

"I've set this goal for the country. We want 5.5 million more homeowners by 2010 -- million more minority homeowners by 2010. Five-and-a-half million families by 2010 will own a home. That is our goal. It is a realistic goal. But it's going to mean we're going to have to work hard to achieve the goal, all of us. And by all of us, I mean not only the federal government, but the private sector, as well.

George Bush yesterday, probably understanding now that he fuc*ked up royally:

"I like the fundamentals. They look strong but there are new signals that cause concern and one of the signals is the fact the housing market is soft. It's going to take a while to work through the downturn"

In the end, in this case I'm not sure if Bush was corrupt, or if he was just stupid. I'm leaning toward stupid. History will not be kind.

And the Great Housing Ponzi Scheme ends. Get ready for the carnage.

Another GREAT housing crash expose in the New York Times. Nice to have good writers out there doing their jobs (hint hint Catherine Reagor).

You wonder how this kind of information can be out there, and the NAR and realtors are still out there lying and spinning. It's over folks. It's all over. And with the crash of housing comes the crash of everything. Get ready.

This Is the Sound of a Bubble Bursting

Southwestern Florida is in the midst of this gathering storm. It was here that housing prices multiplied first and most exuberantly, and here that the deterioration has unfolded most rapidly. As troubles spill from real estate and construction into other areas of life, this region offers what may be a foretaste of the economic pain awaiting other parts of the country.

National home builders poured in, along with construction workers, roofers and electricians. But as a kingdom of real estate materialized, growth ultimately exceeded demand: investors were selling to one another, inflating prices. When the market figured this out in late 2005, it retreated with punishing speed.

“It was as if someone turned off the faucet,” Mr. Carey said. “It just came to a screeching halt. When it stopped, people started dumping property.”

Throughout Lee County, a sense of desperation has seized the market as speculators try to unload property or lure renters. On many lawns, a fierce battle is under way for the attention of passers-by, with “for rent” signs narrowly edging out “for sale.”

Mr. Jarrett hasn’t closed a deal in three months. He is on track to earn about $50,000 for the year, he said. Yet he needs $17,000 a month just to pay the mortgages, insurance, taxes and utility bills on his four properties — all worth less than half what he owes. Rental income brings in only about $3,500 a month.

“It started with housing, the loss of construction jobs, mortgage companies, title companies, but now it’s spread through the entire economy,” Mr. Kest says as he walks a strip of mostly empty condo towers on the riverside in downtown Fort Myers. “It now has permeated everything.”

“All the local governments were drunk with money,” says Mr. Kest, the finance professor. “Now, they’re going to have to cut back and learn how to manage.”

Shocking BBC Investigation: There's a housing bubble in England! Oh my god, who knew!

Gotta love the Brits. England's the home of one of the biggest housing bubbles / ponzi schemes in the world, and Brit hot money has funded bubbles across Europe.

Let's see, they call it the "Housing Ladder", you can rent a place over here for less than 30% of the cost of "owning", every damn show on TV is about flipping homes, their economy is based on banking and housing, everyone wants to be a "buy-to-let" landlord, and the average home price is ELEVEN TIMES the average salary.

Now, this SHOCKING BBC investigation which compares the English housing bubble to past manias, including the South Sea Bubble and the dot-com bubble. Man, that's some great reporting. That's our taxpayer pounds at work over here (did I ever tell you about the TV Tax?).

Welcome to housingpanic.co.uk my Brit friends. A bit late to the party, but glad you could come...

Bubble trouble in housing market - Is there a bubble in the British housing market? We may soon find out.

Looking at every investment mania, from the South Sea bubble of the 18th Century to the stock market boom of the 1920s or the dotcom madness of more recent years, you find dubious deals and misleading numbers which helped persuade borrowers and investors to invest more than they should.

Ominously for the British housing market, a File on 4 investigation has highlighted two glaring examples of these bubble characteristics, both of which have encouraged people to borrow more than they should.

On the one hand, there is the overvaluation of buy-to-let properties. On the other hand is a blatant fraud - lying about your income to get a mortgage.

In the classic sign of a boom turning to a bust, the wall of Paula Jones' estate agency branch is covered with the details of properties that other buy-to-let investors are trying to sell.

When it comes to the Great Housing Crash and Mortgage Meltdown, without question, the United States has now moved to HousingFEAR stage

How do we know? Because we can look back on the lazy days of Denial as if it were a million years ago.

Simpler times, yes they were. Ignorant realtors were calling HP'ers "chicken littles" and "brown shirts". Sheeple were still out buying homes thinking they were appreciating. David Lereah and the NAR were putting out numbers without anyone laughing. Crisp and Cole weren't yet under FBI investigation. 61,000 Countrywide employees thought they had stable jobs.

Ah, but those days of Denial are over. Fear is here. And there's even a sprinkling of HousingDESPERATION in the air. And then, as we all know and expect, HousingPANIC. It hath been foretold.

New spin for MSM and "economists" - The housing bubble was so obvious. No freaking duh!

If it was so damn obvious, why weren't major alarm bells going off in 2004? 2005? 2006? Why do we STILL have so many in "denial" today? Why is the Fed saying "all will be well" and why are so many saying "we've hit bottom".

Why? Because what's been obvious to HP'ers for so long is just now becoming obvious to others. The Late Great Housing Bubble was a classic financial mania, a classic Ponzi Scheme. And the Great Housing Crash of 2006 - 20XX? will be a classic crash and unwinding.

Here's a column by Marketwatch's chief economist. Enjoy. And be happy that you knew what was coming all along and prepared the best you could, even when others didn't, and still don't know what's about to hit 'em.

End of housing bubble should have been obvious to everyone

Why are so many people so surprised that the housing market has weakened and that a growing number of loans are in default? It should have been as plain as the noses on their faces.

Since short-term rates were well below long-term rates, many people borrowed at adjustable rates, believing that rates would stay low indefinitely, or that housing prices would continue to rise indefinitely, thus enabling them to refinance at a fixed rate at some future date.

Needless to say, home prices rose even faster than before, as these lower rates (along with new types of loans and creative sales tactics) increased the effective demand for housing faster than supply.

In some areas, homes wound up costing five times the average family's income or even more. Nationwide, average home prices shot up 50% from 2000-2005 - clearly exceeding household income growth by a considerable margin.

Few were disturbed by these trends. Indeed, no less an authority than Alan Greenspan said in early 2004 (when short rates were at their lowest) that homeowners might have saved "tens of thousands of dollars" over the past decade had they held adjustable, rather than fixed-rate mortgages.

Coming from the person who, as head of the Federal Reserve, had the most control over short-term rates, this might have given borrowers and lenders alike the feeling that it was safe to borrow on a floating-rate basis, since the Fed was unlikely to raise short rates after giving them such a ringing endorsement.

All good things must come to an end, and the end to the housing bubble (which Greenspan belatedly characterized as "froth" by 2005) came as the Fed began hiking interest rates starting in the middle of 2004.

Rising rates reduced the demand for housing, causing prices in some areas to top out and start falling. Readers of this column were informed that the party was over and that some homeowners would soon have difficulty paying off their loans.

Others missed this sign until it was too late. Now they are trying to shut the barn door after the horse has escaped.