Housing Market: Things Are Tough All Over

I mentioned not long ago that I have a friend living in England who's put her home on the market. According to her, the U.K. real estate scene is similar to the U.S. in some ways, and different in many others. Chiefly, the RE market is much lower-tech than ours, with a lot more emphasis on old-style methods of keeping records (Filing cabinets, calendars, etc.). Homes are much smaller there than here (owing to the small country size, population density, and Americans' love of big wide spaces), and real estate agents are even less scrupulous and ethical than our "best of the best."

And if you think going Down Under might merit you a better deal, well, I'd rethink that. Good to see that mortgage and real estate fraud don't respect traditional boundaries, eh?

Of course, here in the U.S. of A, we can rely on prognosticators like David Lereah to remind us that things are going swimmingly, except, well, they're not. Why does this man still have a job?

Lenders are definitely getting more timid with the higher interest rates, and if news from Massachusetts in any indication, things will get worse for at least a few more months before they get better.

As long as major markets--and even middle-road markets--keep converting or building overpriced s$#tboxes and glutting the market, prices will have to come down due to inventory. If lenders expect to command 2003 prices in the 2006 market, they're living in Lereah Land, or at least the Bay Area.

Posted at February 7, 2006 05:26 PM

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