Has the U.S. housing market reached a "bottom" yet?  Are home prices going to start recovering?  Is the housing crisis going to end at some point?  Today there are millions of American families that would like to buy homes but they are not sure what to do.  After all, nobody wants to end up like all the suckers that bought at the top of the market and now owe far more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.  A lot of people are really afraid to take out home loans right now.  So should you buy a home in 2011?  That is a very good question.  The reality is that there are a lot of reasons why home prices could continue to fall.  Unemployment is still rampant, and American families simply cannot afford to buy homes without good jobs.  Also, lending institutions have really, really tightened lending standards.  That is really restricting the number of buyers in the marketplace.  The number of foreclosures set another record high last year so there are a ton of homes that need to be sold and not a lot of demand for them.  So with all of these factors working against the real estate market, are there any reasons why anyone would actually want to buy a home in 2011? (Read More.....)

The real estate crash that never seems to end appears to be getting even worse.  Home prices continue to go down, the number of underwater mortgages is soaring and the number of foreclosures set an all-time record in 2010.  The peak of the housing market was in 2005 and the subprime mortgage crisis erupted in 2008.  Shouldn't things be getting better by now?  How many years is this real estate crash going to go on for?  Home builders and those that work in the construction industry are deeply suffering because new home sales continue to hover around record lows.  Mortgage professionals are having a really hard time because very few people are seeking home loans and many of those that are seeking loans cannot get approved.  Real estate agents all over the country are pulling their hair out in frustration and large numbers of them have left the industry completely.  The United States has never had such a prolonged real estate slump in the post-World War 2 era.  Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of indications that the real estate crash is going to get even worse. (Read More.....)

As we come to the end of 2010, there seems to be very few reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. housing market as we enter 2011.  Home prices have fallen for several months in a row, mortgage rates are going up, mortgage delinquencies are increasing again, the mortgage industry is mired in horrific legal problems and the underlying economy is still extremely sluggish.  During 2009 and throughout the first half of 2010 the U.S. housing market experienced a time of stabilization and it looked like the housing industry might recover, but when the tax breaks expired things started to get bad once again.  Now many analysts are publicly using the term "double-dip" when speaking about prospects for the U.S. housing market in 2011. (Read More.....)

Existing home sales in the U.S. are down again.  New home sales in the U.S. are down again.  What else is new?  The U.S. housing industry just cannot seem to bounce back.  Mortgage lenders have really, really tightened up lending standards and so now there are a lot fewer qualified buyers than there used to be.  It is as if the big financial institutions have nearly shut off the flow of credit.  But without credit, the vast majority of American families don't have a prayer of achieving the American Dream of owning a home.  Even with mortgage rates close to record lows the housing market is still languishing.  Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how low mortgage rates are if American families can't get home loans approved.  With unemployment still staggeringly high and with incomes still declining, it appears that the U.S. housing market is going to continue to suffer for some time to come. (Read More.....)

These are harrowing times for anyone trying to sell a home or for anyone who is trying to make a living in the housing industry.  But unfortunately, there are a whole lot of signs that things are about to get quite a bit worse.  U.S. home sales have hit record lows in recent months.  An increasing number of sellers have started to reduce their asking prices, and there are signs that home prices are already starting to slip substantially in many areas of the country.  Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes in the United States continues to rapidly increase. Home foreclosures and bank repossessions of homes continue to set all-time records.  What this all means is that the U.S. housing market is being absolutely flooded with homes for sale at a time when there are very few buyers.  There is way too much supply and not nearly enough demand and as a result home prices are being pressured downward.  The home buyer tax credits that the U.S. government was bribing home buyers with helped stabilize the U.S. housing market for a while, but now the tax credits have expired and things are getting scary out there. (Read More.....)

It doesn't take a genius to realize that a horrific housing crisis in unfolding right in front of our eyes.  Yesterday it was announced that existing home sales plummeted 27 percent in the month of July.  Today it was announced that new homes sales dropped to the lowest level ever recorded in July.  But why is this happening?  Why is the American Dream still dying for millions of American families?  Wasn't the recession supposed to be over by now?  Weren't home prices supposed to be moving back up by this time?  Well, in this article we will attempt to succinctly break down the ABC's of the Great American Housing Crisis.  Hopefully this will help people understand why all of this is happening. (Read More.....)

The U.S. housing market is dying.  You will only hear hints of this on the mainstream news and from the politicians in Washington D.C., but as statistic after statistic continues to roll in, the reality of what is happening is becoming very difficult to deny.  Up until the end of April, the giant tax credit that the U.S. government was bribing home buyers with helped stabilize the real estate market, but now that the tax credit has expired the decline of the U.S. housing market has resumed.  Mortgage defaults continue to set new records.  Foreclosures continue to set new records.  Home repossessions by banks continue to set new records.  The number of homes being constructed and the number of Americans applying for home loans is at stunningly low levels.  For decades, owning a home has been touted as the very heart of "the American Dream", but today that dream is out of reach for an increasing number of Americans.  Why?  It is because there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.  Without a jobs recovery, there simply is not going to be a housing recovery.  Unfortunately, as the U.S. economy continues to come apart like a 20 dollar suit, even more Americans are going to lose their jobs and the U.S. housing industry will continue to experience a very painful decline. (Read More.....)

As housing prices have plummeted over the last several years, an increasing number of U.S. homeowners have suddenly found themselves with home loans that are much larger than what their homes are now worth.  So a large number of them have opted for what is known as a "strategic default" - they have simply walked away from their homes and have let the banks take them back.  Many Americans simply decided that it was not a part of their "American Dream" to pay off a loan that is for two to three times what a house is actually worth.  Over the last several years, strategic defaults have enabled more than a million Americans to get out from under crippling mortgages.  But now, Fannie Mae has announced a massive nationwide crackdown on strategic defaults.  Fannie Mae says that it will be closely examining the mortgage data to determine who is strategically defaulting and who is not, and they are going to be "going after" those who they believe have committed strategic defaults.  (Read More.....)

Will we see the start of another housing collapse before the end of 2010?  That is what a number of top economists are beginning to fear.  The truth is that there are some very troubling signs in the housing numbers.  The massive tax credit that the U.S. government was offering to home buyers helped prop up the housing market for quite a while, but now that the tax credit has expired, many real estate professionals are bracing for the worst.  The reality is that foreclosures continue to set all-time records, the mortgage industry is a complete mess and another massive wave of adjustable rate mortgages is scheduled to reset in 2011 and 2012.  As the U.S. economy continues to falter, and as the nation starts to deal with the economic fallout from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, many are now wondering how in the world Americans are going to be able to afford to purchase millions of these homes which are still massively overpriced.  The American Dream is still way too expensive for the vast majority of Americans.  So are there signs that housing prices in the U.S. could be on the verge of another major decline? (Read More.....)

If someone came up to you and asked you what you own, what would you say?  It may seem like an obvious question, but it is actually a lot more complicated than you might think.  We live in a very materialistic society.  In fact, a large percentage of Americans today define their lives by what they "own", and a large percentage of Americans consider "living the American Dream" to be about accumulating a house, several cars and a massive pile of possessions.  But what does it mean to "own" something anyway?  Does it mean to have something in your possession?  Well, if that was the case then someone leasing a car for three years could be considered the owner.  But that obviously is not the case.  Does "owning" something mean that nobody can legally take that thing away from you?  Well, if that is the case then perhaps we all "own" a lot less than we think we do.  (Read More.....)