Thread: 10 Worst Real Estate Markets for 2009

I have a thousand guesses regarding why this decline is occurring in these particular cities but the libs have stifled any discussion of an illegal alien cause. Therefore, I guess it's just Wall Street's fault.

Originally Posted by Yahoo Finance (click banner below)

10 Worst Real Estate Markets for 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The housing market hasn't bottomed out yet. For the third quarter, the closely-watched S&P Case-Shiller national home-price index fell 16.6%, and experts are predicting further declines. Of the top 100 markets, here are 10 with the worst forecasts.

1. Los Angeles
2008 median house price: $375,340
2009 projected change: -24.9%
2010 projected change: -5.1%

The median home price in the L.A.-Long Beach-Glendale metro area is projected to fall nearly 25% in 2009 - the biggest drop in the country.

2. Stockton, Calif.
2008 median house price: $248,050
2009 projected change: -24.7%
2010 projected change: -4.0%

3. Riverside, Calif.
2008 median house price: $256,540
2009 projected change: -23.3%
2010 projected change: -4.8%

4. Miami-Miami Beach
2008 median house price: $293,590
2009 projected change: -22.8%
2010 projected change: -6.4%

Miami will be nursing the hangover from its epic building boom for years to come. After falling 22% in 2008, prices are predicted to plunge another 23% next year.

5. Sacramento
2008 median house price: $225,140
2009 projected change: -22.2%
2010 projected change: 2.3%

6. Santa Ana-Anaheim
2008 median house price: $532,810
2009 projected change: -22.0%
2010 projected change: -3.5%

7. Fresno
2008 median house price: $257,170
2009 projected change: -21.6%
2010 projected change: -3.3%

8. San Diego
2008 median house price: $412,490
2009 projected change: -21.1%
2010 projected change: -2.9%

9. Bakersfield, Calif.
2008 median house price: $227,270
2009 projected change: -20.9%
2010 projected change: -2.5%

10. Washington, D.C.
2008 median house price: $343,160
2009 projected change: -19.9%
2010 projected change: -5.7% Source (click here)

Gee i wonder if the rocket scientist have figured this one out?

While housing prices did go completely nuts in many communities, topping out in 2006, the less wealthy areas began to see an influx of people barely speaking English, piling into homes bought through no-doc loans and each night there are five or ten vehicles all over the lawn and the continual music and the pungent smells of garlic, etc. drifting all over the neighborhood. Would I move if I could get no sleep? And while I might know the owners of the home as their neighbor, who are the other ten people living there?
I blame this on the GWB gang deregulating banks so they loan people that can never afford to repay on properties they never could afford. He also reinforced the dream that everyone in this country would be a homeowner whether they had credit or not, and guaranteed there are probably plenty here illegally that got homes.

Vortex: It is also Obama's fault. He was the one as well as others who had lawsuits happening due to the fact minorities were often denied home ownership. They basically played the race card when in reality the people were denied due to lack of income. The lawsuits included foodstamps not being viewed as income and thus often times that would disqualify them due to lack of income. The rules changes and those people were allowed to buy homes. We now see the end reuslt. President Bush can be blamed for not regulating the banks and allowing mortgages with no down payment.

You can throw the Demacrats into that bunch of culprets especially Chris Dodd, Barney Franks and their partner in crime Pelosi....

this whole thing can not be put on Bush as much as I hate him...congress had control but did not care, they wanted low income and illegals to have homes and so created this mess we are in. Infact Clinton is more to blame than Bush on this one....

Bush is to Blame for bringing on the big scare with Paulson to congress and threatening Martial Law if they did not get the big Bail Out they refuse to tell us where the money went!

I'm old enough to remember the days of redlining and arbitrary mortgage refusals. There were still a few posh suburbs where Jews were not welcome to buy. When my grandfather tried to sell his house ('60s) we had a couple want it, but the mortgage broker refused to count her income (teacher) because she was still of childbearing age.

The practice of redlining neighborhoods had an unwanted side effect: it caused blight and turned neighborhoods into slums with absentee landlords neglecting property as they milked it for whatever rent they could get.

I think we have to be careful not to tag the blame for this on minorities per se. For one thing, there are not enough of them to have caused this mess (that's why they are called minorities). Giving loans to uncreditworthy people happened all along the line. Also, people may start out creditworthy and then lose their jobs. That's happening right now.

I place a great deal of blame on ARMs. Think about it, an ARM is a bet that someone who is too poor to buy a given house will become rich enough to afford it together with a higher interest penalty in only a few years. How smart a bet is that in our globalized economy????

I also blame flipping fever.

Housing prices have been out of whack in relation to people's incomes for over a decade now. There is no way that market could have been sustained for a minute without funny money and bad financial practices. When I asked my mortgage broker how much I would qualify for, and he answered, "It all depends on your comfort level" I just shuddered.

One thing I do not understand is why they killed the down payment assistance programs. I got a Nehemiah mortgage back in 99 and at least in my experience it was not any sort of liar loan. I had to document everything.

Unfortunately, the mortgages made with those with good credit being able to pay and bad credit and repayment inability get bundled into packages sold out the back door of banks so they can get more money to lend. I lucked out on my ARM in the 1990s as interest rates kept coming down. But this ARM was sold four times, finally ending up at HSBC (formerly Hong King Singapore Bank Corp.) and I was just waiting for a flock of Asians demanding to see what they had bought.
One bank in Rochester NY, demanded I up my property insurance as they used the rule of thumb that the house was more valuable than the land. Rule of thumb did not work as this beach shack was in an old community where the land value was much more valuable than half-century old quickly built vacation homes. I sent them my tax roll valuations and never heard from them again. Of course, my mortgage was sold again.

The esteemed Alan Greenspan did finally admit to Congress recently that he made mistakes and he had been operating under a belief and financial model that had been proven faulty.
Ben Bernanke has been a student of the Great Depression, but whatever policy is formulated with be done by all the uneducated idiots in Congress. Bush though, has done more to actively exacerbate the problems for this country for the good of his corporate buddies. He has been manipulated by the Cheneys and Roves as the "decider" does not sound like he knows much about anything with any expertise.

I remember being told by a realtor friend that it was pretty much a sure thing that most homes increased in market value by about 10% per year. Now, did my income or yours increase at that rate over the same time? A huge percentage of the homes that have changed hands over the last 3-4 years are now upside-down (aka underwater). In a capitalist economy, a thing is worth what someone will pay for it. That's not what a lot of homeowners want to hear right now, sad to say.