Tuesday, January 19, 2010

AGAIN, WE'RE STILL IN TROUBLE ...

If you want to know what's happening on the national real estate market scene check out these 10 charts from Michael David White. For my money, the key charts are the national debts that need to be cleared out (Chart #5), the Housing Market Overhang (Chart #7), and the Mortgage Performance/Negative Equity (Chart #8) that continues to bog down our markets.

I've discussed these issues on air and on this blog before. Still, it's nice to see them bunched together in a market that many people think is recovering. In a few words, we're still in trouble. As I've written, much of the positive news we've seen vis-a-vis the banks is smoke & mirrors. As well, President Obama's Making Home Affordable plan has become a disaster, especially since the banks don't have to negotiate in good faith (having the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve backstop your toxic bets, and other derivative products with trillions of dollars in guarantees encourages banks to drag their feet).

In all cases, Michael David White makes it clear that we've got more big hurdles to clear. Why the MSM continues to interview the same tired cheerleader/analysts - i.e. the same people who didn't see our 2008 train wreck coming - instead of interviewing people like Michael David White is a mystery to me.

- Mark

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