Zillow: Home price declines now exceed the Great Depression, prices fall for 53rd straight month

Source - Reuters

(Reuters) - Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November (the latest data available), taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.

Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month.

It is a dubious milestone for the U.S. housing market which has failed to gain much traction despite a host of government programs to reduce delinquencies and encourage demand with temporary tax credits and lower interest rates. Many economists expect further price drops, even if there are some anecdotal signs of growing demand, such as in pending home sales data.

"For the next six to nine months, the larger factors affecting the housing market that will produce more home price declines will be the excess inventory of homes, high negative equity and foreclosure rates, and weakened demand due to elevated employment, Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, said in a blog post.

Declines are accelerating, and it will take a while before falling unemployment and other signs of economic improvement support the market, Zillow said.

Home prices fell at a 0.78 percent pace in November, the fastest since February 2009, the company said.

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Dr. Robert Shiller - Eventually the bailout bill will be $1 trillion for Fannie & Freddie due to continued declines in housing in 2011...

Video:  Steve Liesman with Yale Professor Robert Shiller

• CNBC with Robert Shiller -- $1 Trillion Scenario

• Total Cost Of Fannie, Freddie Bailout Could Reach $1 Trillion -- Bloomberg

For American taxpayers, now on the hook for some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, that amount could be just the tip of the iceberg.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion.  And if housing prices fall further, some experts caution, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion.

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More on this clip is here...

• UPDATE: Fannie, Freddie Bailout Could Double In Size To $360 Billion -- It Will Eventually Be $1 Trillion

Comments

[DailyBail]

Mortgage applications ebbed at year end: MBA

(Reuters) - Applications for U.S. home mortgages ebbed in the last two weeks of the year amid the holiday season as loan rates hovered around their highest levels in seven months, an industry group said on Wednesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BE25B20110105

[DailyBail]

US Sun Belt towns may mimic Rust Belt decline-study

(Reuters) - U.S. Sun Belt cities enduring the steepest drops in real estate values are vulnerable to the long-lasting economic declines well-entrenched in places in the heart of America's Rust Belt, according to a recent report.

Places like Stockton, California, and Fort Myers, Florida, that grew most quickly during the housing boom are the places where economic activity may never return to previous peaks, the the Research Institute for Housing America said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0613885720110106

[DailyBail]

UPDATE 1-Hu concedes China needs human rights improvements

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1921953620110119

[S. Gompers]

As far as local governments go home prices are soaring, just look at your property tax bill. But don't worry, it is not fraud if your blessed electorate are cheating you out of your hard earned money.

It is just good "business".

[Oberron4life]

the answer cannot be raising more tax revenue, in $100B lumps. We'e seen over and over that the money will just be wasted leaving us right back where we started.

And don't hold your breath on the Cap Gains tax being simultaneously eliminated...

[DailyBail]

i won't...and you're right...