Uncle Bill

Think Housing's Bad? You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

I think these estimates look about right. But isn't there a built-in downside bias to this particular futures market? Who would want to go long the futures, when there are so many other vehicles available to go long the housing market? It seems the only viable use for these futures is to hedge against the underlying (home) you already own, whether it's in a portfolio or you're sitting in it now. Any ideas out there about who wants to take the other side of a short position in housing futures? By the way, Shiller is one of my heroes. "Market Volatility," from the late '80s, is a classic, yet it still reveals many truths about today's market.