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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Post-Crash Index-Moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kikogrey who wrote (28843)	7/13/2011 9:11:30 AM
From: Jim McMannis	1 Recommendation Respond to of 119362

'And If Elected I'll Fix the Housing Market' ... Probably Not pbs.org A carpenter installs vinyl siding for a new home under construction in Raleigh, N.C., in May. Photo by Jim R. Bounds/Bloomberg via Getty. As the economic troubles that began with the last recession drag on and on, the drop in housing prices and construction is, correctly, labeled as a key problem. And it is big topic among 2012 presidential hopefuls. On Monday, Rep. Michele Bachmann told the crowd assembled in Iowa for her candidacy announcement: "We can't afford four more years of a housing crisis that is devaluing our homes and making home ownership impossible for many Americans." That's a sentiment to which all Americans would surely nod their heads. People losing value in their homes often can't sell because of the loss they would take. They feel less economically secure and less likely to spend money elsewhere in the economy. And less moving and fewer home sales ultimately means less home building. Without question, a real problem. But as Patchwork Nation sees it, the only serious solution to it is time -- and in some places a lot of time. Last week, we wrote "A Skeptic's Guide to the 2012 Debate Over Manufacturing Job Losses," and noted that despite what any candidate says about that sector of the economy any turnaround will be a slog. Today we turn a skeptical eye what will surely be another critical part of the 2012 election cycle: the debate over fixing the housing market. Not a Recession, a Depression If you want to understand just what happened to the housing market, look at the number of residential building permits in 2006 (when times were good) and 2010. The market went off a cliff. The U.S. economy may have hit a very bad recession, but in the housing market it was a depression. In 2006, there were permits issued for more than 1.8 million housing units - everything from single-family homes to units in apartment buildings. In 2010, that number had dropped to about 600,000. And the value of those permitted projects fell from $290 billion to about $100 billion.