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.....)

The more you read the news today the more likely you are to get really mad.  The world is becoming an incredibly crazy place, and at times the amount of bad news that is coming out can seem almost overwhelming.  Everywhere you look, the poor are being oppressed, our politicians are making stupid decisions and evil is on the march.  The America that so many of us grew up deeply loving is literally being ripped to shreds in a thousand different ways.  Unfortunately, those in power have not had any real answers for us in decades.  The Democrats don't have any real answers, the Republicans don't have any real answers and the Federal Reserve sure as heck does not have any real answers.  In fact, it seems like almost everything that our leaders actually do "accomplish" only makes things worse.  The vast majority of Americans are quite busy being entertained by "bread and circuses", but meanwhile our country is literally falling apart. (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.....)

Over the past twelve months, the U.S. economy has continued to come apart like a 20 dollar suit.  During that time it seems like more bad economic news has been coming out nearly every single day.  Instead of getting better, the problems facing the U.S. economy only seem to be multiplying.  The U.S. government and the U.S. financial system continue to absolutely drown in debt.  Factories, jobs and massive amounts of wealth continue to fly out of the United States every month at an astounding pace.  Meanwhile, the number of Americans enrolled in anti-poverty programs continues to shatter records and the U.S. housing industry continues to set records for futility.  The truth is that less Americans are living the American Dream today than were living it twelve months ago.  The U.S. economy is in a serious state of decline, and it is time for all of us to wake up and admit the truth. (Read More.....)

In an absolutely stunning development, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage have all suspended foreclosures in many U.S. states due to serious concerns about foreclosure procedures.  There has been an absolutely massive tsunami of foreclosures in recent years and it turns out that mortgage company officials dealing with foreclosure paperwork have not always taken the time to process each foreclosure properly.  Things have gotten so bad that a number of U.S. states have actually opened up official investigations that are looking into some of these foreclosure practices.  But what did everyone expect?  There has been such a dramatic surge in foreclosures over the past several years that it was almost inevitable that shortcuts would start to be taken.  Back in 2005, there were only about 100,000 home repossessions in the United States.  Last year there were about 1 million home repossessions in the U.S. and RealtyTrac is projecting that there will be a record 1.2 million home repossessions this year.  Needless to say, this has created a paperwork headache for mortgage companies of unprecedented magnitude. (Read More.....)

In the mainstream media, all the talk is about how the "recession" is over.  But the truth is that our economic problems are far from over.  In fact, the U.S. banking system is dying.  U.S. banks continue to fail at a record pace.  The FDIC list of problem banks continues to grow at an alarming pace.  Loans and mortgages continue to go bad at an accelerating rate at banks across the United States.  The truth is that we are in deep, deep trouble, and the vast majority of the American people do not even realize it.  But the American people better wake up soon, because if the U.S. banking system dies, the American Dream is going to die along with it for tens of millions of Americans. (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.....)

As election season 2010 draws near, the Obama administration has finally realized that the Democrats could actually lose both the House and the Senate in November.  Suddenly all Obama wants to talk about is his wonderful new plan for the U.S. economy.  Unfortunately, what he is suggesting is far too little and far too late.  Anything Obama is proposing now will not be passed by Congress before the upcoming elections, and that is bad news for the Democrats.  The American people tend to vote based on their wallets, and right now the American people are not happy.  They desperately want someone to "fix" what is wrong with the economy.  Obama is running around the country trying to convince people that he is the man to restore the American Dream, but at this point the American people have less faith in his economic policies than ever.  The White House is insisting that Obama's new economic plan is not a new "stimulus package", and that is actually true.  Obama's new plan will not stimulate much of anything.  The truth is that Obama's new economic plan is really just a cruel joke on those who are willing to have faith in Obama's ability to somehow turn the dying U.S. economy around.  Unfortunately, throwing several hundred billion more dollars at the problem is not going to do anything to fix the foundational problems that are destroying our economic system.  (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.....)