Is the Housing Crisis Over? ASK THE EXPERT - Andrew Jakabovics

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/05/helping_homeowners.html

Andrew Jakabovics of the Center for American Progress sits down with our cameras for this latest installment in CAP's ASK THE EXPERT SERIES to answer these questions: Is the housing crisis over? What does the congressional legislation do and will it help? And what's left to be done?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• house
• real
• estate
• jakabovics
• american
• progress
• cap
• finance
• mortgage
• subprime
• money
• debt
• credit
• realtor
• lehman
• goldman
• merrill
• wall
• street
• bailout
• congress
• bernanke
• paulson

[ourearthhome]

The housing crisis is really a crisis of land speculation since land is the only value that really goes up when property is speculated with. The crisis is periodic, about every 18 years there is a cycle of boom and bust in the real estate, i.e. land speculation market. The crisis will not be over until land values fall back to level where people can afford to buy again. The best guess is that land values, property values, were at least 50% over real value. There is a real long term solution.

[milatyme36]

research the Federal Reserve folks....read The Creature From Jeckyll Island and you'll realize that the Federal Reserve has complete control over the economy.

[jhammer74]

California has some of the most restrictive building policies in the US. The housing bubble has been going there long before subprime lending inflated it further.

Height restrictions, rent controls, green laws, etc constitute a majority of the home costs there. LA isn't nearly as bad as San Fran, though, in terms of artificial prices.

Yay, government! Google it, get informed, get mad!

[darliegoddess]

THIS IS INSANE ! This market is a free market and the government shouldn't be bailing anyone out ! These prices were based on fraud and the lenders are at fault . Let them die like any business that commits fraud.

[acseeley]

Nope, I don't live in LA, I live in TN. And if you have 110k in cash, a move out of LA should be a snap. Don't bitch and moan because you live in an area where the housing market is obscenely inflated compared to the rest of the country.

[davidinla36]

You obviously do not live in L.A. where 2 bedroom home in a shit area flooded with illegal aliens costs about $500,000. If I could get a home like you described above, I'd pay for it in cash.

[acseeley]

I would like to see where you get your info of this "silent majority". Houses are affordable if your expectations are not unrealistic and you don't purchase something that is going to cost you 70% of take home.

[acseeley]

Where are you talking about? I know that where I live, 6 years ago I bought a 1300 sq foot house with 2.3 acres for 110k, not too expensive and that was no where close to the cheapest. You need to lower your expectations and do like the rest of us, purchase small, improve, add value/equity, sell for a profit, get a bigger/better house, repeat.

[davidinla36]

"I would really like to see the equity value increase instead of fall like it has been, wouldn't you?"

What you do not realise is that there is a silent majority out there who want home prices to fall so that they will be affordable again. Why do you think that having home prices so high that people have to pay 70% of there take-home pay to make an intrest-only payment is a good thing?

[davidinla36]

"So your solution is to let more houses slip into forclosure, which drops the value of all our houses"

Housing prices are going to fall regardless simply because they are unsustainable at current wages. Prices rose fair too high and too quickly. There were a number of us who say this 4 years ago and did not wish to get involved, so why should we have to pay?