I’ve seen too many articles like this lately, and couldn’t let this go without comment.  Ryan Nakashima of AP quotes prognosticators who believe that hotel and casino construction will not only cause a housing rebound, but a shortage in 2009.  Speaking of Las Vegas he said: The economy might seem depressed if it weren’t for the steady stream of inbound planes laden with tourists, and the glimmer of shiny glass representing billions of dollars of new construction on the Las Vegas Strip. "It’s going to turn around," Natanel said. "It’s just a matter of time." One think tank already is…
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Congratulations to our friends at Implode-O-Meter for having the libel lawsuit against them dismissed: Bay Area-based pay option ARM lender Loan Center of California (LCC) and Aaron Krowne/Krowne Concepts Inc. ( Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter ) have settled the lawsuit which was filed by LCC on May 7, 2007, in LCC’s home county of Solano, CA. The suit stemmed from a report from a former LCC employee, that was posted anonymously on ml-implode.com for about a day in mid-April, 2007. The report alleged that LCC was suffering from financial difficulties and had engaged in improprieties. LCC disputed the content of the…
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Reuters takes a look at housing in 2007:  

The Maricopa County Assessor’s Office says property tax relief is on the way- for some people- a year from now:  [Thanks M!] Valley homeowners upset about the fast rise in their property-tax assessments may feel some relief this year as the latest valuation notices hit their mailboxes. The Maricopa County Assessor’s Office says the new round of valuations to be mailed around Feb. 1 will reflect the slump in the housing market. The office, however, would not disclose specifics and emphasized that not all property owners will see a decline in assessed value. Some neighborhoods have held values better through…
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According to Yahoo Finance this morning: WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes plunged last month to their lowest level in more than 12 years, a grim testament to the problems plaguing the housing sector. The Commerce Department reported Friday that new-home sales tumbled by 9 percent in November from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000. That was the worst showing since April 1995, when the pace of sales was 621,000. The sales pace for November was much weaker than economists were expecting. They were predicting sales in the weakest sector of the economy to drop by…
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This has been around a couple of weeks, but it’s new to me. Here’s Paul and Cramer criticizing the Federal Reserve:  

It’s the last Friday of 2007, and it’s been quite a year.  Last January Lereah was telling us the housing market was about to make a comeback, and pundits were telling us to ignore the little rumblings in subprime, that it would be contained. The world has changed.  We’ve moved from focusing on local "frothy" markets to watching a global credit crunch.  Our thanks to Doomers who provide us with links and keep us informed. As always we welcome your thoughts, comments, stories, and insights.  While you are digging them out, here’s Suzie Orman- a little bullish on being a…
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Time and again we keep hearing realtors tell us that "You don’t want to try and time the market."  Take this for example- here’s a Q&A by Walter Updegrave from CNN Money this morning.  A reader asks: At some point I plan to buy a house in the $250,000 to $400,000 range. I have generally good credit and plan to make a down payment of 20 percent or more. But given the instability in the housing sector and generally tightening credit landscape, I’m wondering whether I should buy now or wait several months, maybe even a year, to see where…
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Another sad real estate tale from my hometown of Gilbert: [Thanks to everyone who sent links on this] PHOENIX (AP) — Gilbert-based Re/Max 2000, one of the Phoenix area’s largest real estate brokerages, shut down its 13 offices this week, as the housing bust hits a city that was once one of the nation’s hottest markets. Robert Kline, who started the franchise in 2000 and grew the business through acquisitions, said his decision to close was made after a particularly rough patch in December, when it became clear he no longer could afford to pay overhead expenses. "The market has…
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The housing market continues its freefall: NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. home prices fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, declining a record 6.7 percent compared with a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index.   "No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," said Robert Shiller, who helped create the index, in a statement Wednesday. The previous record decline was a drop of 6.3 percent, recorded in April 1991. Home prices fell 1.4 percent in October compared with the previous…
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A very Merry Christmas and happy holidays from your friends here at HousingDoom.  We’re skipping the "gloom and doom" this morning for a video that’s more hopeful:

It’s Christmas week, and unless some company is looking to announce some bad news while most of us are busy at the mall returning that unflattering sweater, the news should be pretty light this week.  Consequently I’m spending most of the day finishing up some wrapping and checking on the pies- so I’ll be in and out. If anyone does happen across any great links, stories, etc., we’d love to hear about it.  Our apologies in advance if Igor confuses your comment with his bowl of holiday spam- I’ll rescue it just as soon as I make it back to…
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Forget murder mysteries- if you listen to the financial news or the politicians, you realize that the latest whodunnit on everyone’s mind is not who murdered whom in the dining room with a ping pong paddle, but who’s to blame for the late, great, housing bubble.  As a scourge it’s been compared to "The Grapes of Wrath" and to Hurricane Katrina, and there’s a lot of people who want to find a head or two served up on a platter. Roger Bootle, managing director of Capital Economics has one of the better explanations I’ve read in awhile: if you are…
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Here’s another good one with Peter Schiff as a voice of reality on Fox News:  

My apologies if the free link has expired, but many thanks to L for one of the funniest articles I’ve read in awhile.  After years of releasing national reports, the National Association of Realtors is now knocking the reporters that listen to them.  According to Bernice Ross of Inman News: In all the years I’ve been writing this column, I have never received such an outpouring of response as I did from the two November articles on how media coverage of negative housing news is hurting our industry. In spite of gloom and doom of recent news reports on the…
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