Housing Prices

I was talking with a friend who was telling me that it was the absolute perfect time to buy a house because housing prices have tumbled and interest rates are low. I asked him, "What happens to housing prices if there is inflation and rates go up?" "Housing prices should go up with inflation as they do for all goods. Housing is a natural hedge for inflation" Did my friend have a point? Yes and no. Yes, he was right that in a high inflationary environment, housing prices should rise with all other assets. Rents will go up, as will the price of all the inputs into housing such as lumber and labor costs. Obviously, housing prices will go up to reflect this reality. But no, when inflation and thus nominal interest rates increase, housing prices tumble. When rates fall, housing prices tend to increase.

"Moody's now expects that a trough in home prices will not be reached until the middle of 2010. In addition, based on recent loan loss severities, Moody's will increase its projected lifetime loan losses for pools backing U.S. Jumbo, Alt-A, Option ARM, and Subprime RMBS issued between 2005 and 2008." - Moody's Investors Services

After the good folks in the Deutsche Bank securitization group anticipated a 47% drop in NY housing prices in March, they have released an updated report discussing the future pain in the top 10 MSA, and the biggest outlier by a big margin, once again, is the New York-White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ MSAD.

After the good folks in the Deutsche Bank securitization group anticipated a 47% drop in NY housing prices in March, they have released an updated report discussing the future pain in the top 10 MSA, and the biggest outlier by a big margin, once again, is the New York-White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ MSAD.

After the good folks in the Deutsche Bank securitization group anticipated a 47% drop in NY housing prices in March, they have released an updated report discussing the future pain in the top 10 MSA, and the biggest outlier by a big margin, once again, is the New York-White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ MSAD.

For all who claim that rampant inflation is up next, and home price deflation is over, I present the following charts for readers to ruminate on just how much higher existing home sales inventories are relative to some semblance of a trendline, in addition to a long-term chart comparing CPI with the median home price.

For all who claim that rampant inflation is up next, and home price deflation is over, I present the following charts for readers to ruminate on just how much higher existing home sales inventories are relative to some semblance of a trendline, in addition to a long-term chart comparing CPI with the median home price.