Bubbles implode. And this housing bubble is no exception.
WhenGreenspan took the Fed Funds Rate down to 1 percent (lower than thelowest rate of the Great Depression), it meant that what HAD BEEN themonthly mortgage payment on a $150,000 house suddenly became the amountof a monthly mortgage payment on a $400,000 house.
And presto - those $150,000 houses became $400,000 houses.
Lookat the highest-priced market for housing in the U.S. - the SanFrancisco Bay area. Foreclosures, year over year, have risen 622percent. There have been more foreclosures in that "safe housingmarket" than ever before in history.
The Case-Shiller studyshows that housing prices have decreased across the U.S. by 4.4 percentin August, year over year. That is unprecedented.
I see the housing bubble implosion currently being in the second inning of a nine-inning game.
Perhaps the words "housing bust" are a matter of semantics in our divergence of opinion.
Regardless, my view is that the housing sector is going to get a hell of a lot worse before it ever gets better.