Housing Index Update

With recent news that the nation’s home values may very well continue to drop over the next several months, it’s no wonder most homeowners have concluded that they may as well get comfortable where they’re at least for the time being.
On the positive side, at least for some production home builders, some areas have actually seen prices increase on new homes. Existing homes however may continue to see a decline in value due to the continuing market deluge of foreclosures with no foreseeable end in sight.
“We should expect house prices to continue to fall, with nationwide prices dropping another 15 to 20 percent to complete the process of deflating the bubble,” wrote Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in the New York Times.
“It’s pretty clear the housing market has already double dipped,” says David Blitzer of S&P.
Patrick Newport of IHS Global Insight observed that existing home prices in several metro markets had actually triple dipped during the recession.
It has to make you wonder why the policy makers didn’t shift their focus early on to making housing more affordable during the housing bubble rather than allow prices to inflate beyond the average home buyers means and the turn a blind eye to lenders who offer mortgages that were virtually unpayable to many buyers.
The benefits of making housing more affordable to the average buyer would have an enormous impact on our economy. Not burying homebuyers in debt beyond their means frees up much needed cash that could benefit the economy by being spent in various other sectors.
There’s no doubt that when the dust settles and the reality hits that “you might as well make the best of where you’re at for now”, that at least the remodeling industry is due to see an upswing.

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