From the LA Times:
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index shows a 2.4% decrease in December from the same month in 2009 and 1% from November, the fifth straight month of declines.
With foreclosures high and demand weak, home prices in a majority of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas posted fresh lows in December and pushed a widely watched index of real estate values close to a double-dip decline…
The only reason I can see for “close” in that report is an MSM determination not to admit to a double dip until ordered to by Obama. Its just absurd to say “close”…housing prices are contracting, again. Of course, for us here in Las Vegas, this is no news…poking around town the other day I saw the same model house that I bought in 2002 for $179,000 and sold in 2005 for $249,000 going for $120,000. Meanwhile, an investor bought a property which originally sold for $370,000 in 2005 for $110,000. We’re completely toast as far as housing goes…and there is no upside on the horizon. It is fully expected that prices here will continue to drop for at least two more years.
Meanwhile, food and energy prices continue their inexorable rise, wages are stagnant or down, unemployment remains high and looks to go higher and places like China teeter on the edge of financial melt down. And no one in power seems to have the foggiest notion of what to do about it. Grim times are coming.
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