Too soon to hope for U.S housing recovery (foreclosed, mortgage rates, mortgage)

[LongIslandCitizen]

Too soon to hope for U.S. housing recovery? | Special Coverage | Reuters

By Lynn Adler - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Early signs of a decent spring selling season in the U.S. housing market, as mortgage rates hit near-record lows, have been snuffed out by the latest round of dismal data.

Sales of existing homes sank in March and the February increase was revised lower, suggesting no imminent bottom for housing or the 16-month economic recession.

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[mazurkr]

in addition to the shadow inventory of the sidelined sellers-to-be, there's also the shadow inventory of foreclosed houses the banks are sitting on.

also the impending alt-a and option-arm resets/recasts, due to hit through 2011.

also, spain hit 17.4% unemployment

also, pontiac is no more, as is most likely, all of chrysler

and, and, and <sigh>...

but hey, the dow went up today!

and don't worry, real estate is local!

[cohdane]

One new thought regarding recovery occurred to me today. The pool of potential buyers is witnessing financial carnage in the current crop of owners. Families' life savings wiped out. Their belongings "trashed out" into metal containters. Stress, depression, divorce and in some tragic cases, suicide.

I think this is going to bring out a whole new brand of caution in buyers.

In some markets, the house with the "for sale" sign in front of it seems less and less like the one in The Brady Bunch and more and more like the one in Poltergeist.

Just a thought.

[Flat2MT]

Originally Posted by cohdane

One new thought regarding recovery occurred to me today. The pool of potential buyers is witnessing financial carnage in the current crop of owners. Families' life savings wiped out. Their belongings "trashed out" into metal containters. Stress, depression, divorce and in some tragic cases, suicide.

I think this is going to bring out a whole new brand of caution in buyers.

In some markets, the house with the "for sale" sign in front of it seems less and less like the one in The Brady Bunch and more and more like the one in Poltergeist.

Just a thought.

I think that's why you see a lot of potential buyers afraid to pull the trigger.

Buyers are not at all confident that the financial minefield ahead of them is cleared sufficiently enough to accept any level of risk so they are overly cautious.

The problem with this is it leads to the possibility of being totally paralyzed by financial fear. A significant number may never buy as they become totally risk adverse when it comes to making big ticket item purchases.

Just like our family members who survived the great depression, the lessons learned we choose to accept today will be forever ingrained in our psyche.

Maybe that's a good thing.