Home » News Stream » Consumer »

More Hard Times Ahead For Housing Industry

By The Associated Press

Falling prices, slumping economy, rising foreclosures combine for the perfect economic housing storm. Construction is expected to drop to the slowest pace since the 40s and prices are expected to decline by the largest amount since the Great Depression. More Hard Times Ahead For Housing Industry

Published: Mon, May 26, 2008 - 11:27 am Last Updated: Mon, May 26, 2008 - 11:43 am

WASHINGTON (AP) - Experts are predicting a slow comeback for the
real-estate industry.
Sellers are facing the most brutal climate in decades, as
falling prices, a slumping economy and rising foreclosures combine
for the perfect economic housing storm.
Construction is expected to drop to the slowest pace since the
40s and prices are expected to decline by the largest amount since
the Great Depression.
Hardest hit are the states where sales boomed the most:
California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and parts of the Northeast. In
the Midwest, shrinking jobs in the auto industry make homes even
harder to sell.
The National Association of Realtors says 46 states saw sales
decline in the first three months of this year compared with the
same period last year. The state with the biggest drop was
Maryland, down nearly 39 percent from a year ago.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Photo

More Hard Times Ahead For Housing Industry

WKRG.com Related Resources

More –› Related Articles

Discuss this in the forum

Those who Recommended this also liked:

Recomend

Email to a Friend

Printer Friendly

DEW26M Says:

Mon, May 26, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Carl, you never know, my mom always told me “I’d rather have it, and not need it, than need it, and not have it” lol

• Report Abuse

carl Says:

Mon, May 26, 2008 at 6:58 pm

Sounds like I might ought to clean a spot off in the back yard and plan on a garden and canned goods and so on,HUH?

• Report Abuse

DEW26M Says:

Mon, May 26, 2008 at 6:45 pm

Being in the residential housing business, I remember 8-10 years back when the interest and mortgage rates were low, almost every common joe could afford to buy a huge expensive home. We all said back then it was gonna come back to haunt us. And here we sit today, watching the economy steadily fall, pretty soon, you will see more and more, big, nice homes sitting vacant, or for sale.

• Report Abuse

BamaBob Says:

Mon, May 26, 2008 at 6:36 pm

A home used to be the biggest and the safest investment an individual could make, but you had to qualify for the loan. Now there are thousands of people top heavy on mortgages, because of predatory lenders.

Between this and the dependence on foreign oil, it looks like we are all in for one rough ride over the next several years.

• Report Abuse

carl Says:

Mon, May 26, 2008 at 6:27 pm

Did you see about those loans last night on that report on tv? Some of those walking away from some of these houses had got loans for as much as 125% of the value of the house or asking price. Every one was getting a cut off the loans so no one objected. Now they want every body to bail these companies out!

• Report Abuse

BamaBob Says:

Mon, May 26, 2008 at 12:20 pm

The booming economic times during the Clinton administration has come back to bite everyone on the a$$. The repeal of Glass-Steagall set the stage for a bubble that had to burst.

• Report Abuse