United States Heading towards a Depression?

Remember a couple weeks ago I said out here in california the prices were still dropping rapidly? Well it looks like the prices have dropped another 20K in just the last 2 weeks on a 130 thousand house. Now youd be lucky to get 110,000 for that house it looks like. I been monitor closely what houses are selling for and which ones are not for the last few months in our area paper.
I even seen some houses selling for under 100,000 for the first time. Some even at 65,000! Although im sure those are beat up.

I don't know when will hit bottom but from where Im at it looks like prices will bottom at the prices of around the 90's. We live in the rural suburbs that were extremely overinflated during the boom, so the downturn won't be as bad in other areas, but where Im at its crazy how prices are going to go back to levels that haven't been seen since the 90's. They aren't there yet, but its only about another 25-30 percent or so before it hits those levels of the mid 90s!

 

What part of California that isn't out in no-man's land is it under 100k?

 

Its in the central valley, About 30 miles outside the outer edge of the san francisco bay area. Its 50 miles south of stockton. Stockton I believe is "ground zero" for the worst housing bubble crash in the nation. In our county, we were actually ranked one of the worst for least affordable housing for the average income in the county. The housing was very inflated and the only reason why some people moved here was because a lot were getting higher paid in the bay area with a long commute to bay area. Stockton is more built up and a little farther away from the bay area, so most didn't move there to commute, except for those west and south of it.

Anyways, despite the huge crash of houses being worth nearly 1/3 of their peak, the housing prices still seems to be tumbling at unbelievable pace. I honestly can't figure out how housing is holding up as good as it is in many areas in other parts of the nation.

 

I just heard that 40% of all the bankers on "Wall Street" are going to be laid off. And most of the others are having their bonuses SLASHED!

 

Prices can't come down as eaisly as they went up. The homeowners can't sell the homes for less than the loan amount.

I passed by the Upper East Side the other and the exclusive stores on Madison ave are empty.

Job losses in New York are expected to hit 160,000. Mayor Bloomberg has announced a 5% budget cut and layoffs are planned for March.

 

Yeah, it's scary for a lot of people.

I have a bunch of friends who are bankers/analysts and they plan on losing their jobs or getting shitty bonuses.

I feel really bad for them because they work about 100 hours a week.....and w/o a bonus they're basically working for $10/hour.

 

That sounds bad -- All I hear in the news is about the top executives getting huge bonuses. Shit rolls downhill.

 

Yeah, exactly!!! The employees count on their bonuses too. Without the bonuses, nobody in their right mind would work the ridiculous hours these guys and girls work.

A few of my friends work at ML and they're going to be the last ones to lose their jobs. Which will make it that much more difficult for them to find jobs when they do get laid off.

Like you said, the worst is yet to come. The 2009 bloodbath is going to make 2008 look like a good year!

 

Cry me a river.

Wall Street leeches need to get real jobs and stop living off the rest of America's labor.

 

What do you do for a living?

 

Why can't they sell homes for less than the loan amount? Do they have to have the cash in hand at that moment of sale to make up the difference on the sale?

 

They could work at Target for 10 bucks a hour. At least for the same pay, they would be doing something productive for society instead of leeching off the wall street casino.

 

The seller would have to make up the difference. Many sellers have negative equity and are unable to make up the difference when there are large amounts involved.

Homes that sold for $550,000 in 2005 wouldn't bring $350,000 today. The average subprime borrower doesn't have the 250k in cash to get the deal done.

 

Ron Paul had told us what would happen. Dave Walker had warned us. Marc Faber put it all in his reports. Jim Rogers was screaming his voice out. Max Kaiser and Peter Schiff did all they could to warn the people. But no one would listen...


The Federal Reserve is destroying America...

The worst part of all this is the global economy is going down, not just the US economy...

P.S. Friends who give me negative reps, please be kind enough to sign them.

 

cause global investments in US

 

I see, I never would even drive that far over. My guess is that it is a lot of slum, since it seems to have a lot of gang activity. "straight out of stockton" Are you talking about Modesto or Manteca?

Try pricing San Jose, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, etc...

 

Santa Cruz is a shithole for hippies. They were successful in driving a HD dealer out of town, among other businesses. You couldn't pay me to crap there.

 

It actually has some very conservative people as well. Many of the hippies live in the hills.

Harley Davidson? Maybe Boulder Creek has a dealer since the hells angels use to have some sort of base there. I remember the fear people had of that group when I was a kid in that area.

Where I live now is very connected to Santa Cruz, many people here including me were from Santa Cruz (the rest from San Jose, well, not everyone, but it sures seems like it.)

 

Its the climate lately and the level of responses seen here were I derived my initial opinions from:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_10972453

Most of the Hells Angles fear now-a-days is pure hype and stereotypes. How long have you been away btw? I know when I look at the places I grew up from years ago vs what they have become its kinda scary, if not disturbing.

 

Nothing new Jeremy. If you read the forums on our local newspaper you would see how many stupid people have Internet access. Many of those hippies moved up here as well. They are a different breed, I like to call them hippie-hicks. They live out in the woods with their guns, weed, dogs, cats, gray pony tail and cowboy hat. They will have solar panels and grow lights. Usually have a Subaru and are mad at the world. It sounds like just stereotyping, but there are a lot of them in Northern (I mean North, not central and up, but the actual northern part of the state) California and Southern Oregon.