The Next U.S. Housing Crisis Has Arrived: Existing Home Sales Post Their Biggest Decline In 4 Years

Things just continue to get even worse for the U.S. housing industry.  New homes sales have been absolutely plummeting, homebuilder stocks have lost over a third of their value, and existing home sales just posted their biggest decline since 2014.  For years, we had been witnessing a real estate boom in the United States, but now that has officially ended.  It is starting to feel like 2008 all over again, and many of those that work in the industry are really starting to freak out.  The Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates, and it is having the exact same effect on the housing industry that it did just before the last recession. (Read More...)

Housing Crash?: U.S. Existing Home Sales Fall By The Most In Six Years

Home For Sale - Public DomainWe just got more evidence that a major economic slowdown is underway here in the United States.  Existing home sales were down a whopping 7.1 percent during the month of February, and this represented the biggest decline that we have seen in six years.  This is yet another sign that we are in the early stages of a new crisis that is eerily reminiscent of what happened back in 2008.  The truth is that most U.S. consumers are tapped out, and when you are tapped out it is really hard to get a mortgage.  Banks aren’t really fond of lending money to people that can’t pay it back, and in recent years housing prices in many areas have risen to levels that are beyond the reach of most middle class families. (Read More...)