Quote from maxpi:
Mine has quadrupled in 20 years which points to 7% inflation. Houses themselves don't change much over the years, the function, quality, etc. is very stable. I am going to use those as the basis for economic comparisons from now on.
What really happens when house prices go up is not that a house is worth more, it still serves the same purpose, has the same costs of operation relative to it's price, etc. What happens is that the currency used to buy it is worth less.
This is misleading. You're implying houses only go up b/c of currency depreciation. But house prices can go up independent of currency valuations due to speculation, demand, supply, etc. The dollar weakening is related, in part, to the easy credit and lax monetary policy of the current admin, but the current bubble was created due to easy credit and lending standards that then spurned a bubble when people realized they could MAKE RELATIVELY QUICK MONEY just by buying and selling houses.
People complain that Americans savings rates are very bad, actually it points to Americans being smart. They don't put money in a pass book account that pays 1%/annually when the dollars are deflating much faster than that. Americans are putting their money in houses and leveraging like crazy to do it.
Not saving for a country is bad, just like not saving for an individual is bad. It may work short-term, but without money in the bank you are at the mercy of your lenders, which is the situation the US is in with China who holds over $1trillion in treasuries. The asians have to keep buying our treasuries in order to support the dollar. That's not sustainable indefinitely. We've actually gotten ourselves into a situation that REQUIRES unprecedented cooperation between the US and rest of the world in order to be resolved without calamity that people in this country haven't seen in a while.
As long as we don't have deflation they are making out like bandits. If we have deflation they will still have a house to live in if they pay it off, If they don't pay it off the banks will take any kind of token payments a person can make during deflationary times because they don't want to repo worthless properties. They will be a huge liability to a bank rather than an asset. One rule of real estate is that abandoned properties will be destroyed, banks know this.
They aren't making out like bandits. They only way they make out like bandits is if they sell their houses for a gain. That would have been feasible had the bubble continued, but bubbles ARE bubbles b/c they are unsustainable.
"If they pay off their mrotgages" - many of the new homeowners in option ARMs and other exotic mortgages will not be able to pay their houses off b/c they were suckered into resetting mortgages that were way out of their income range. This is where the predatory lending practices come in.
How do you know banks will let people stay in houses after they default on their mortgages? The only way that would happen on a national scale is if the govt introduced legislature and reform to allow people to stay in houses that they do not legally own. This would only happen if the bust reached a level that truly threatened the stability of the economy. Besides, if people are defaulting on their mortgages they are
probably in a very dire financial situation. This means greatly reduced consumer spending - which leads to recession.
Edit: One line of mis-reasoning I see in this thread is the leap from a hard real estate landing automatically leading to a recession!! That has essentially never happened historically!! And regarding the economist that is the subject of the thread, he is an advisor probably to fund managers and something like 95% of funds underperform the indexes!! The "appeal to expert" philosophical false argument abounds here and probably will, once again, be soundly refuted next year. [/B]
There's never been a housing bubble in "modern" times (last 50 years) like the one we just had, so there is no precedent. The only precedent we have is the effect of the bust on consumer spending, residential investment, and jobs - and based on precedent a sizeable decline in those three indicators will lead to a recession.
Roubini isn't just an advisor to fund managers - he runs a global economic consulting service and advises all sorts of financial organizations, including funds.
He has been making
accurate predictions about the economic indicators that have been released over the past 12 months - much more accurate than the economists in the Bloomberg survey.
Your arguments seem to ignore timing and sequence. For example "banks will accept reduced payments instead of kicking people out of their houses." This is wrong, but assuming it's correct - if people can't make their payments then we are already in trouble - and that's what's going to start happening over the next 6 months unless the Fed can pull a big fking rabbit outta their hats.... but they can't it's impossible.
We are now in a situation where deflation, stagflation, and hyperinflation are all strong possibilities in the near future. How did we get into a situation where future GDP growth estimates are
being revised downwards with every new economic release and
inflation has been above a 2% annual rate (Fed comfort zone is 1 - 2%) for over 30 months, and is now beginning to creep higher
The longer we keep this facade going, the harder the fall is going to be. I'd love to hear a rationale explanation as to how we are going to emerge from the current dilemma. The Fed and all the big banks are currently working overtime to prop up the market and SPIN every piece of bad news out there - but how long can they last? Maybe long enough for them to cover their behinds...