Look Out Below!
As of the first quarter of this year, property prices in my neck of the woods fell 53% off their highs and then appeared to stabilize. Three houses on the market today are being offered for 25-35% less than equivalent sales in February.
Ambiance 
mockturtle said,
May 23, 2011 at 9:32 am
Property here in western WA is currently valued at 20-25 percent below what it sold for before the recession. They say it’s because our area was one of the last to lose value so is later in recovery but this makes no sense to me. They expect the market to pick up by the end of next year but it’s a buyer’s market here now, for sure.
Icepick said,
May 23, 2011 at 12:40 pm
RMA.
Randy said,
May 23, 2011 at 1:12 pm
RMA
As in “Return Merchandise Authorization?”
Icepick said,
May 23, 2011 at 1:14 pm
From the NY Times:
Icepick said,
May 23, 2011 at 1:16 pm
RMA
As in “Return Merchandise Authorization?”
LOL
No, as in (R)ecovery (M)y (A)….
(That last word is NOT (A)rtichoke.)
Icepick said,
May 23, 2011 at 1:17 pm
The Times must have themost easily defeated pay wall ever, BTW.
Icepick said,
May 23, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Also from the times: Five years after the housing market started teetering, economists now worry that the rise in lender-owned homes could create another vicious circle, in which the growing inventory of distressed property further depresses home values and leads to even more distressed sales.
The good news is that a continuing decline in housing prices will allow the government to continue to insist that there’s no such thing as inflation, even while paychecks get stretched thinner and thinner by rising food and fuel costs.
Icepick said,
May 23, 2011 at 1:29 pm
@@
“These shops are under siege; it’s just a tsunami of stuff coming in,” said Taj Bindra, who oversaw Washington Mutual’s servicing unit from 2004 to 2006 and now advises financial institutions on risk management.
He’s got experience with what not to do, dontchaknow?
chickelit said,
May 26, 2011 at 12:07 am
The good news is that a continuing decline in housing prices will allow the government to continue to insist that there’s no such thing as inflation, even while paychecks get stretched thinner and thinner by rising food and fuel costs.
The last I heard the government wanted us to eat less and use less transportation fuels, so that seems according to plan too.
Icepick said,
May 26, 2011 at 1:10 pm
The last I heard the government wanted us to eat less and use less transportation fuels, so that seems according to plan too.
And who doesn’t love it when a plan comes together?