CHESSNOID

The reports coming out says it is bad and the worst since the Great Depression.  I don’t know if that is true, but if you are a real estate agent it must feel that way.  The source of our recession stems from the housing bust and until that bottoms out I don’t think the economy will improve.

CNN:

The drop took place despite bargain prices as property values continued their decline. The median existing home sold for $181,300 in November, down 13.2% from a year ago when the median was $208,800.

Yun said that price drop was the largest the association had ever recorded and probably the worst decline since the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, the glut of unsold homes expanded to 4.2 million in November. That represents 11.2 months of supply, at the current rate of sales, up from 10.2 months in October. Bloated inventories have barely budged over the past 12 months; last November there were 4.27 million existing homes on the market.

“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, November was another tough month for the housing market,” said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research. “It’s not surprising considering what happened to credit markets this fall.”

Existing home sales are now the weakest they have been since July 1997, and price drops have wiped out all the previous gains back to February 2004, Larson said.

I think now that the economy is under the microscope, many wasteful government programs will be axed. I am not sure what the new Obama administration can do to get the economy back on track. They want to do another stimulus package which I have mixed feelings about. I love free money, but yet I don’t think that is the real solution. It didn’t work last time and I doubt it will this time.

I guess all we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worse. Be grateful for what we have like our health, family and friends. Happy Holidays!