How Unemployment Is Dragging Down The Housing Market

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/how-missing-workers-are-d_n_840570.html

We are getting blamed yet again...

Quiethawk wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/how-missing-workers-are-d_n_840570.html

We are getting blamed yet again...

Although the United States population has grown by 120 million people in the past fifty-odd years, today's new homes are selling at just half the pace they were in 1963.

Home sales are being dragged down by the weakness of the labor market and the number of Americans who have grown too discouraged to look for work, economists say. In previous recoveries, the housing market has sometimes buoyed the economy, creating new jobs and driving economic growth. This time, however, the housing market is now lagging behind.

Flawed housing data might mask depth of woes
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42258117/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/


Two high-profile reports on home sales this week confirmed that
the housing market is still mired in a deep slump with prices still
falling and sales activity sluggish at best. In fact, the market may be
in much worse shape than even those numbers suggest.

Figures from the National Association of Realtors that are among the
most closely watched indicators on the housing market have been called
into question by economists who say they may overstate existing-home
sales activity by up to 20 percent.

Quiethawk wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/how-missing-workers-are-d_n_840570.html

We are getting blamed yet again...

These economists are stupid if they can't figure out why people aren't buying houses. Even the employed people know not to do that right now because they could lose their job any day. Also, from what I've heard, even the people that are trying to buy are getting turned down for loans.

Quiethawk wrote:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/how-missing-workers-are-d_n_840570.html

We are getting blamed yet again...

Duh! That makes sense! Give us jobs and everything will pick up!4 million out of work and off benefits, well Duh! 15% total unemployed ,well thats a lot of dollars missing in action!

I remember the good old days. My brother put his house on the market and went out of town for a week. When he returned he had 7 offers and 2 of those were over the asking price.

I thought it was the other way around.....that the inability to sell their homes has been a main reason that people don't relocate to take the jobs that are supposedly so 'plentiful' in North Dakota & Nebraska.

(Course we know that there aren't enough jobs in those places anyway.)

The US housing market would rebound swiftly if Congress would pass a law forcing the banks to reduce the principal owed by 10% for every American citizen with a mortgage on a home or condo that's been their primary residence for at least 5 years. Okay maybe not 10%.....but even a 1% reduction would give the housing market a significant boost.

North & South Dakota facing housing shortages.... Good to see ya Philly...