Housing Slump Will Deepen as Mortgage Crisis Stifles Lending, Realtors Say

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg News

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. housing slump will extend into next year as tighter loan standards cut into home sales, the National Association of Realtors said.

The organization today reduced its forecast for the ninth time this year and said existing home sales will fall 8.6 percent in 2007, exceeding the 6.8 percent drop estimated a month ago. New-home sales probably will decline 24 percent on top of an 18 percent fall in 2006, the Chicago-based group said.

The two-year housing decline is worsening as a collapse of credit markets forces lenders to raise standards even for borrowers with the best rating. Federal Reserve policy makers, who meet next week, said at their last session ``tighter'' credit is putting the U.S. economy at risk.

``There's been an unusual hit to home sales, starting in March when subprime problems emerged and more recently when problems spread to jumbo loans,'' Lawrence Yun, an economist for the group, said in the forecast. Jumbo loans are those over the $417,000 limit guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and are typically given to borrowers with good credit.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFZowVlRK2nQ&refer=worldwide

[Double T]

1. The combination of manufacturing plant closings and foreign outsourcing of.......

potentially 40,000,000 American jobs to other countries, will make the housing slump last indefinitely UNLESS new THINKING and leadership is installed in the WH and in Congress. wall street and corporate ANTI-america have sold out the country and it is NOW time to take our country back.

[maleficentia]

2. AMEN! eom

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Wait a minute - someone found realtors who

will admit that there are "issues" with the housing market? Said realtors are not from around here, northern Virginia. All the local ones are saying that things are just gr8.

[Purveyor]

4. When I was posting the article, I thought to myself it must be 'really bad' out there if

the Realtors are now talking 'doom and gloom'...