Carl leason

Housing Market Tracker - Will Baby Boomers Save Homebuilders?

In other words,...the baby boomers have learned a lesson, and have suddenly gotten smart ???,..As Forrest Gump would say, "Stupid is as stupid does ". These baby boomers and the idiot mtg. brokers are responsible for this housing "slump",...I doubt it . Way too many people, of all ages, thought of these past few years as if they would continue forever,..and there were simply no controls on mortgages ! No income verification, just stupidity ruling the past 5 years or so, right ? Then banks bundling the bad mortgages and selling them to your retirement fund, and the Gov. and everyone involved just went along !! There is so much inventory of homes on the market tht it will take years, unfortunately, for this mess to get fixed,..that's assuming , of course, the the Fed. Gov. doesn;t put us into even deeper debt, making the dollar totally worthless. But, even that has a bright side,...since we don't manufacture anything any more , the dollar has become worthless and soom we will be owned by the oil barrons of the mid-east, or Europe. LC

Hovnanian Enterprises: 'The Housing Market Has Bottomed'

Hi CM, I have been in R.E. sales for 25+ years and your assumptions 1) and 2) are correct, but with all the jobs going overseas wages are not likely to rise more than 2-3 pct. a year for the forseeable future and people simply cannot afford the rent that would be appropriate for the high prices people paid.
The only solutions are 1) to take what rent you can get now, simply to cut losses, or 2) take a loss and sell at a realistic price.
Most investors can't wait for wages to increase and those vacant, over priced homes were purchased by people who didn't do the math and figure their realistic return on investment, so now they they pay for their ignorance ! LC

Hovnanian Enterprises: 'The Housing Market Has Bottomed'

You are right on target ! One week's activity does not mark the start of a trend ! Like you ,..I would rather start looking back to see where the bottom is rather than to start thinking that's it's already here !
HOV is going to have to run a lot more "fire sales" before they find the bottom . They have a LOT of inventory to move ! LC