Rut Roh, Shaggy...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

Applications for mortgates have fallen for the third straight week, with the current interest rates now higher than they were a year ago. The biggest drop-off is in the refinancing arena -- where homeowners have been pulling equity out of their homes to finance more spending.

Link

Meanwhile, the price of housing keeps rising faster than salaries, meaning that many middle and slight-higher-than-middle class homeowners who "bought up" thinking that their salary would catch up with their mortgage (or who, god forbid, took out adjustable rates mortgages to buy a house they otherwise couldn't afford) are going to be in for some tough times.

Link

Between mortgages squeezing every last dime from a homeowners cash flow and staggeringly high gas prices, the Bush Recovery could be over before it begins.

Bug, meet windshield.

[cssmall]

1. So, who's got the pin?

You know, I honestly had been fearing the day that bubble bursts. I fear it for the owners that got suckered into this variable rate bullshit and secondary home loan bullshit, but then I wonder exactly what will happen next.

[ewagner]

2. Grrrrrr.....

this has been predicted for a long time and NOBODY LISTENED! :grr:

[mikehiggins]

3. Dancing faster

The american consumer is dancing ever faster to keep his head above water, but the water is rising faster than the South Pole ice is melting.

Sooner or later, the debt has to be paid. The bankers have gotten their anti-bankruptcy bill past (thanks Dems and Repukes alike), have gotten their bankcard charges doubled (ditto) and have gotten their CAFTA abomination signed (ditto, ditto). All that is left is a spate of defaults, probably underwritten by the feds, and the last legacy of Bushworld, the Great Depression of 2007-2020 will be upon us.

But hey, maybe I see things too positively. I guess they could be worse. We could be fighting a pointless, endless war at the same time.

[qanda]

9. What a great post!

I talk to so many people who are struggling to make it. My one friend is in such financial straits that she went back to work a week after having c-section. We have a carnival every year and I was talking to the guy who was walking around selling toys and such and he said this was the worst year ever. His words, "There must be a recession coming." I was like, COMING??????? For some of us it has never left.

[displacedtexan]

4. Here in Baltimore...

... thousands and thousands of "investors" bought row houses, paid to have them gutted,spent $100,000K to $200,000K on renovations, and got in the game too late to sell when prices were sky high last year and even this spring.

Now, thousands of them sit unsold and even unrented. There's a glut. I can't imagine how many people are losing everything.

[Mutley]

6. I live in Baltimore..

and I live right next door to one of these houses. It is currently sitting there unfinished, and unsold. The owner still thinks he's going to get $500,000+ for it. I say dream on, brother, that house is nothing but junk.

[displacedtexan]

15. When I read the real estate ads...

I just scream, "Are you fucking insane?"

I'm not paying half a mill for a 12' wide house with your choice of granite counter tops, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom. And then have to park on the street?

Insane in the membrane.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

7. It's everywhere...

My brother can't sell his house in Omaha (Omaha?) because developers have been slapping together sububarn homes faster than the market can absorb them. Last we talked, he hasn't had a single looker at his house, which is really quite nice and located in a good school district. But with more than 4,000 homes listed in the Omaha (Omaha?) market, his is just lost in the clutter.

[progressoid]

5. And it's all going to fall on the Democrats to fix............again.

[LoKnLoD]

8. I saw all this coming

I tore up all my credit cards and got on a debt management program back in January. Got my interest rates at 9% on all my Visa and mastercards. In five years I will be debt free and giving the finger to the phucking credit card companies.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. I grew up in the country...

and there were a lot of old bachelor farmers who would, at the drop of a feed store cap, embark on a rant about banks and the evils of credit. I always figured they were just a lot of cranks.

Turns out they may have been smarter than I ever imagined.

[dogday]

11. The sky is falling -REALLY

the sky is falling. This was bound to happen with all those low percent housing loans and the federal reserve working to make Bush look good. All his deflated numbers and figures are coming back to bite him in the ass. Bet you he will also blame Clinton for this one as well....

[wli]

12. time to move my savings to Euros and flee the country n/t

[meganmonkey]

13. Nobody is ever going to buy my house

and I'll be stuck in the boonies forever.

:cry:

[Supersedeas]

14. SssssssPlat