November 16th, 2009

A quote from CNBC Realty Check:

"Home prices are improving, but there is a lot of government stimulus behind that improvement. The extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit, as well as artificially low mortgage rates backed by the Federal Reserves purchase of GSE loans and securities, will all expire by the middle of 2010, so it remains to be seen whether the very tenuous recovery we are now seeing in housing can endure on its own.

As foreclosures and unemployment continue to rise, the potential for a double dip in home prices is very real, and borrowers underwater now will only sink deeper."

She tends to be a bit dramnastic (fantastically dramatic) but they are valid points, by the time these programs fade out, the year over year declines in prices will be flat or show appreciation, and the unemployment rate will be going down, and foreclosures will be flat. So, it's fine to let these programs go by the wayside in a healthy recovering market. However Steamboats real estate market is in worse shape than the US. Which will make it easier to see the bottom in Steamboat when nationally the bottom will be evidently just past us. The report I just reviewed on the Whistler real estate market makes it look like they had a spike due to the Olympics being announced and are crashing as hard as we are, just like most ski towns. Note below the fed has been scaling back there keeping interest rates low program, it's suppose to end in seven months, rates will only go up from there historic lows of 5% right now.