There are obviously lots of potential answers for the question in my title. But since posting earlier today about the extreme declines for Atlanta home prices in September and October according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices, I’ve been looking at a…
Wonkishness warning: Very high. Calculated Risk has a great post today: Private Investment and the Business Cycle The post shows that while private investment typically only accounts for about 15% of GDP, it plays an outsized role in economic recoveries.…
There’s likely going to be a lot of puffed up anger and indignation about today’s dramatic downward revision of existing home sales by the National Association of Realtors. (“Rebenchmarking” is the term being used by the NAR.) But those of…
A couple of days ago in my City Talk column and in a followup post here — Where is the Savannah housing market headed in 2012? — I talked about the importance of housing starts in the economy. Well we…
Cleveland hasn’t fared nearly as badly as some other metro areas in the housing bust, but the city limits have been losing population — over 500,000 people — over the last 60 years. And that’s obviously a key reason why…
In my City Talk column today, I talk about the direction that the Savannah area housing market is headed: What we can expect from the local housing market in 2012. I’m not going to rehash all my predictions and all…
The Obama administration’s Housing Scorecard for November spotlights Atlanta, which recently saw the worst ever monthly price decline in the history of the S&P/Case-Shiller indices. The scorecard includes a number of graphics showing the Atlanta metro area’s relative weakness, like…
A couple of things I wanted to point out in today’s Savannah Morning News. Of first note, Charlie Harper — columnist, businessman, and editor of the right-leaning political blog Peach Pundit (a site I check almost daily) — has a…
There are lots of ways of looking at today’s release of the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices for September. The index actually uses three months of data — July, August, and September, in this case — and is released both…
When I moved to Savannah in 1995, I paid $625/month in rent for a large parlor level apartment on East Gwinnett Street just off the park. It was a newly rehabbed space, and there were plenty of much cheaper places…
There’s nothing new here for regular readers of my column or this blog, but the AJC has a good overview today about the prospects for a housing recovery in the Atlanta area: No quick recovery for metro housing market. I…
From Animal McMansion: Students Trade Dorm for Suburban Luxury in today’s NYT: Here in Merced, a city in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley and one of the country’s hardest hit by home foreclosures, the downturn in the real…
I still have my doubts about any federal efforts to help the housing market, but I am impressed by the planned expansion of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), detailed today by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Those who…
I’ve written a lot in recent years about housing and home prices. I have been disdainful of just about every move the federal government has made — even those like the homebuyer tax credits that enjoyed broad bipartisan support. None…
