Friday, September 03, 2010

As Goes Housing...


...so goes the economy. It will be hard enough to sustain consumer spending in the coming years in the face of retiring boomers, lower real wages and continued debt reductions assuming housing stabilizes and shows an ability to recover some value. But without a housing recovery, savings rates will be higher than needed, making a consumer recovery worthless. Get ready for some major league new thinking in how to resolve the housing problem. As a reminder: massive unsold home inventory, massive shadow inventory in the wings, millions of homeowners underwater and millions more close to underwater...