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.....)

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.....)

Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is.  The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a "downturn" or a "recession".  What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen.  Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive.  Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era.  We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.  A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious. (Read More.....)

Is the current economic crisis creating a generation of American deadbeats?  Once upon a time in America, we were taught that no matter how much financial trouble we get in we pay our debts - no matter what.  But now that has fundamentally changed.  Today, record numbers of Americans are filing for bankruptcy and a new term had to be invented ("strategic defaults") to describe the large number of people who are making "business decisions" to walk away from underwater mortgages.  Meanwhile, many of these same individuals who are walking away from their debts are spending big money on cruises, vacations and new cars - as if they were still entitled to all of the good things that come with living the American Dream.  Below you will read some incredibly disgusting examples of this.  It is as if a whole generation of Americans has decided that "financial responsibility" is a problem that they don't care to be bothered with.  But what is it going to do to the U.S. financial system if we can no longer count on people to honor their debts? (Read More.....)

Those who believe that the U.S. real estate crash is over are delusional.  The truth is that all the numbers point to the foreclosure crisis getting worse - not better.  Many of the talking heads on the major news shows want to make the American people feel better about the real estate market and are projecting that things will soon turn around, but a cold, hard look at the statistics tells an entirely different story.  Foreclosures are increasing and there is every indication that they will continue to increase.  According to RealtyTrac, initial foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March, an increase of almost 19 percent from the previous month.  It was also the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report on initial foreclosure filings in January 2005. (Read More.....)

Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh told an audience on Friday that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a cyclical recovery and that there are "encouraging" signs of improvement in financial markets.  Many other governmental and media talking heads have uttered similar pronouncements about a "recovery" which will put the U.S. economy back on track.  But are we really experiencing a recovery?  If so, then why are foreclosures still hitting record levels?  Why is unemployment so high?  Why are so many cities and states on the verge of bankruptcy?  Why are so many average Americans hurting so much?  The truth is that what we are experiencing now is a period of stabilization before the "second dip" of the double-dip recession so many economists have been talking about hits.  What the U.S. economy is actually in the midst of is a complete and total structural failure.  The American Dream is going to permanently die for millions of American families.  Millions more are going to lose their jobs and millions more are going to lose their homes.  This is what we get for piling up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world and outsourcing much of our manufacturing and industry to places like China and India.  Now we are an aging, bloated dinosaur trying to survive on a service economy and the biggest debt bubble of all time. (Read More.....)

Interest rates have nowhere to go but up.  Interest rates will rise during the second half of 2010, and they will continue to rise during 2011.  This is going to cause a lot of pain for the U.S. economy and for American consumers.  Unfortunately, this is not just the opinion of a handful of half-baked Internet nutjobs.  This is the assessment of the New York Times and of the highly respected economists that they interviewed.  It seems that virtually everyone in the financial community agrees that it is inevitable that interest rates are going to rise.  And that is really bad news for the U.S. economy. (Read More.....)

Is the United States experiencing an "economic crisis" or an "economic consolidation"?  Did the financial problems of the last several years "happen on their own", or are they part of a broader plan to consolidate financial power in the United States?  Before you dismiss that possibility, just remember what happened back during the Great Depression.  During that era, the big financial powers cut off the flow of credit, hoarded cash and reduced the money supply.  Suddenly nobody had any money and the economy tanked.  The big financial powers were then able to swoop back in and buy up valuable assets and real estate for pennies on the dollar.  So are there signs that such a financial consolidation is happening again? (Read More.....)

The housing crash of 2008/2009 was one of the biggest financial disasters in American history.  Approximately 6 million homes have been foreclosed on by lenders in just the last three years alone as millions of American families watched their hopes for achieving the American Dream go up in smoke.  Since early 2008, approximately 60 million U.S. homes have lost a combined 5 trillion dollars in value.  It has been an unmitigated disaster for homeowners, lenders, home builders, real estate agents and construction workers.  Now approximately one out of every four U.S. homeowners are "underwater" on their mortgages.  That means that they owe more money than their homes are worth.  If that wasn't bad enough, it is estimated that by June of this year approximately 5.1 million American homeowners will own a home valued below 75 percent of what is owed.  Can you imagine owing $400,000 on a home that is only worth $300,000?  That is where millions of American families find themselves now.  In some areas of the U.S., the housing market is so bad that it is almost comical.  In California, one bank demolished 16 nearly completed homes because it was cheaper to knock them down than to finish building them.  The worst part is that by all indications, the housing crash is far from over.  In fact, a massive "second wave" of mortgage defaults is on the way over the next three years that could potentially deliver a knock out blow to the U.S. economy. (Read More.....)