Lereah's Latest Admission

David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, after finally admitting that the US housing market is likely headed for a "hard landing", is now admitting that "we’ll probably see prices dip temporarily below year-ago levels". Temporary? How long is temporary? Five years? Ten years? He then goes on to admit that "people who purchased last year with the intent of flipping are likely to get burned" and reminds us of the fact that "over time, home prices rise at the rate of inflation plus one-to-two percentage points" and "buyers in most of the country who plan to stay in their home for a normal period of homeownership can pretty well bank on those historic averages". Normal? How long is normal? 15 years? 30? And what about all those people facing ARM resets who cannot afford to wait out a "normal period" of occupancy?

In other words, anyone who bought a house within the last two or three years in a bubble market is screwed and the longer you wait to sell the lower the sale price will be and if you cannot sell for what you think you are entitled to then you had better get used to living in (or renting, or looking at) your overpriced POS because it is going to take a decade for sale prices to recover to past peak levels.

It is no longer a question of whether house prices will drop; it is now a question of how far they will drop.

Hey, David Lereah --> this is all very old news to those of us who have been paying attention for the last few years and/or who haven't been completely deluded by their paper "profits". Three or four years ago you had a choice of being honest or dishonest; to serve your self-interests or those of the American public. You chose dishonesty. You and your minions have deliberately misled people with your lies and manipulations. You have encouraged this outrageous situation to grow to the most preposterous of levels until it has now reached the breaking point. If you had only spoken truthfully when it mattered, you know, been a professional, then the frenzy to buy a house might have stood a chance at being tempered and the country as a whole would have been much better off for it. There would likely have been much less demand (and necessity) for "toxic" loans and so Joe Average recent house buyer would not be strapped with an unnecessarily crushing debt load. But instead, you (and others) had to shamelessly lie and manipulate and now we have to endure a crash. At this point a crash will probably be in the best long-term interests of the economy but in the short-term we must endure much pain and suffering all of which could have been avoided or at least minimized. Truth is always preferable to dishonesty.

Mr. Lereah: you no longer have any credibility IMO and should be subjected to the modern equivalent of tarring and feathering.