Are we near the bottom?
As home prices drop to 2003 levels according to S&P/Case-Shiller, and with 10.7 million homes in America owing more on their mortgage than their home is now worth, economists are scrambling to call the bottom of the housing market.
Economist Barry Ritholtz as interviewed above says the slow motion crash in housing will continue and predicts that we are only in the 5th inning of a 9 inning game. Housing values could drop more, he notes, which means buyers may be able to get even better pricing in coming months (years?).
Ritholtz has long advocated for letting the market bottom out without government intervention but predicts the housing market has not hit bottom and will not for some time.
There are signs of hope that some sectors, like the new home construction market, are making a recovery, but as for an overall recovery for real estate, Ritholtz opines that it will be a long time before we see a healthy housing sector again.
