NATIONAL HOUSING – More ugliness as affordability on the buy side is still a problem. Mortgage resets will continue to make struggling homeowners payments even more unaffordable. I do not think the gov’t sponsored rate freeze plan will be as effective as some think. Inventory will continue to be a drag on national housing and buyer demand will continue to be pressured. Prices will continue to drop in most of the struggling markets like Miami, Las Vegas, & Phoenix with some markets seeing 10-15% drops. I am fairly negative on national housing for 2008, however, if I were in the market for the longer term I would start to get VERY interested in bidding for distressed properties that have realized a 20-30% correction in price since 2006. All in all, I think its going to get uglier before it gets better and I expect foreclosures & delinquencies to rise in 2008 causing more pain for wall street financials. I also expect commercial to follow residential and get hit in 2008.Towards the end of 2008 I expect the rate of declines for major datasets to slow, showing a glimmer of hope for 2009.
Source: urbandigs.com
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