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$6 Trillion of Housing Wealth Disappears
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Los Angeles Times
May 2, 2008
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A Washington think tank is warning that housing prices are falling at an accelerating level, destroying wealth at a pace that will cost the average homeowner $85,000 in lost wealth this year alone.
The projections by the Center for Economic and Policy Research are based on the numbers in Tuesday’s Case-Shiller home price index, which showed accelerating price declines in most big cities.
The annual rate of price decline over the last quarter was 24.9% in the 20-city index and 25.8% in the 10-city index,” the center said in its Housing Market Monitor today. “At this rate of price decline, the excesses of the housing bubble will have largely disappeared by the end of the year. At the same time, the price decline implies an incredibly rapid loss of wealth. In real terms, the rate of price decline in the 20-city index would imply a loss of almost $6 trillion in real housing wealth over the course of the year, an average of $85,000 per homeowner.”
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May 2nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
and the fleecing continues. So what over the past 10 years the American people have been jacked for 10-15 Trillion between the housing bubble and the dot com bubble …. simply astounding
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
People are gearing up for the pending depression. Its time to get out of the stock market and into gold and tangibles that can be used in the coming hard times. This depression is going to be a long drawn out tester of our will. The Republic will not look the same when we come out on the other side.
http://www.TacticalWarfighterGear.com
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
The more pain, the more people we can wake up to the FACT these are planned events, and they only work out of our arrogance and ingonrance of Truth and Freedom. Keep your houses, learn why you dont even owe a mortage, they sold your loan and have already been paid on it! You owe them nothing without proof they are out the money! Do some homework, you owe them nothing unless they can prove a liablity and provide orginal, unaltered loan paperwork, its the LAW.
RESTORE THE REPUBLIC!!
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
RIGHT ON, NO PAIN NO GAIN.
THE MORE PEOPLE TAZED AND CHEWED UP AND SPIT OUT BY THE FEDERAL MONEY MONSTER BEAST, THE MORE THAT FLOCK TO OUR SIDE.
RESTORE THE REPUBLIC.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I WANT AN OLD AIRCRAFT CARRIER, AND ANCHOR IT IN THE GULF 12 MILES OUT AND TURN IT INTO A SOVERIGN NATION.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
There was not any net loss because the properties in the boom markets were overvalued in the first place. A state with an average income of $50K should have NEVER had an average home price of $450K.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
You have a point there Marc B., average home should have nowhere been priced at 450k at 50k average income. But the problem is that people have mortgages at 450k but there house are worth only 100k. Also these high end mortgages where bought by investors at the 450k price and not at the 100k one. The reason banks or the ones servicing the loans don’t want to reduce said mortgage to reality is that they would be defaulting on those debt/mortgage bonds. Lets say you are pension fund/bank/or financial institution that bought 1 billion dollars in MDO’s traunches(mortgage debt obligations) at 6 to 8 percent yield. Said issuer of the bonds decide to reduce the amount of the loans to 100k from 450k, now your investment is worth $222,222,222.2 a little over 222 million dollars and you are getting 6 to 8 percent yield on this amount instead of the 1 billion dollars.
That is unacceptable to you the institution that bought these instruments at good faith. Most of these contracts have a clause where if there is a change in the traunches (like payout amount or contract language) the issuer is obligated to buy back these instruments at full value. Many of these issuers and banks have nowhere near the amount of money to buy back the billions and billions of dollars in bonds. You the investor is in a pickle because you made calculations and leveraging of the billion dollars on other debt or financial instruments, so if that piece of the puzzle falls apart for you it may cost you more than a billion dollars. It’s like a chain, american banks and institutions leverage their deposits to as high as they are allowed and the people/institutions that follow them do the same thing, so in essence (just like Bear Sterns) if one part of that chain is broken it can effect the whole chain. Why do you think they ran to Bear Sterns rescue sunday night/ monday morning before the asian markets opened up last month. It was if they came down it would expose JP Morgans debt issues and etc. etc..
That is why the banks won’t change anything, because they want a guarantee from the govt.. Saying either if we reduce these mortgages you will stop any lawsuits against us, or if we reduce these mortgages you will make up the difference. We aren’t out of the woods, not even close.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I have a house in ouest africa that i rent for 50/month tops….at that rate , i paid the house after 10 months…there’s no banking prosess involved.I even lower the rentthe needs of the occupants.
Wath exacly are we paying for??
Where does that money go??
I.B.P.??
And that house in ouest afr. is worth 100K min. in occident continents.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
1984usa.com
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Well said PATRIOT2008. People are gonna have to get the s--- kicked out of them before they realize what is going on. Knock some sense into them!
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
We’re doing the gold thing too but watch it. There is a provision in the Patriot Act allowing confiscation of citizens’ gold by the gov’t, (just like 1933). So of course the cockroaches could and probably will steal Americans’ gold again. We’ve been warning people about these ridiculous home prices for 25 years. Anyone who bought into that fiasco would buy a dime for a dollar.
LONG LIVE THE BLOOD-BOUGHT AMERICAN REPUBLIC!
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:20 pm
buy bullets beans reasonable dirt before the Amero
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
It is time to stop what you are doing with your lives and get pro-active. What are you waiting for? Write or call your Congressmen and say you are fed-up with them – period. Tell them that their days of lying are over. It is finally a time for change. NO MORE DC BULLs---. Be strong and clear. Get started TODAY. If we do nothing we will have nothing. Tell what you know to everybody. Don’t hold back. GO, GO, GO!!! Get out into the streets. Get out into the streets!!! Tell the “Gov’t” that you’re finished with their lies, corruption, so called wars and the destruction of our country by their design. Say NO to any more involvement in the Middle East. We have enough oil on the North Slope of Alaska to run this country for more than 200 years, plus coal. Fight them now before it is too late. Who the F**k are they anyway? Just a long list of political grifters, passing the torch on to family and friends who want to continue to rule us. They are killing us as I write – HELLO>>>>>??
Demand the truth, and immediate recision of the interim laws that Bush has signed to imprison you and me. Screw the D of C! They are our King George. We can’t wait any longer. They must go, NOW! Do something – anything – tomorrow, and the next day – and so on. Get off your asses, and get with it before it is too late. DO IT NOW. GET GOING – EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO SEE CHANGE BUT DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. Do ANYTHING TO STOP THE CURRENT MADNESS – It’S REVOLUTION OR DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 am
i know some of you dont believe the ecosystem is being torn a new one, but you can apply this same set of steps to media, government, and corporations. hope you get to stage 6 some day.
The waking up syndrome
by Sarah Anne Edwards and Linda Buzzell
“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” — T. S. Eliot
Just dealing with our daily lives keeps most of us too busy to worry about whether or not the sky is falling. We focus on getting to and from work, paying our bills, doing our errands, and, if our time-stressed schedules allow, enjoying a little time to relax with friends and family.
But we’re deluged of late with dire pronouncements from high-profile newscasts, documentaries, and scientific reports about global warming, melting ice caps, dwindling oil supplies, and a looming imminent economic collapse. Closer to home, we’ve experienced climate-related disasters: floods, wildfires, hurricanes, wildfires, and severe droughts.
While the sky may not be falling, this day-after-day onslaught of alarming news is making it more difficult simply to overlook the triple threat of environmental, climatic and economic concerns. It’s leaving many of us feeling like Alice in Wonderland, being sucked down a Rabbit Hole into some frighteningly grotesque and unfamiliar world that’s anything but wonderful.
Few of us are eager to contemplate, let alone truly face, these looming changes. Just the threat of losing chunks of the comfortable way of life we’re accustomed to (or aspiring to) is a frightening-enough prospect. But there’s no avoiding the current facts and trends of the human and planetary situation. And as the edges of our familiar reality begin to ravel, more and more people are reacting psychologically. A noticeable pattern of behavior is emerging.
We call this pattern the Waking Up Syndrome, and it unfolds in six stages, though not necessarily in any particular order.
Stage 1 – Denial.
When we first get an inkling of the shifting environmental reality and its potential impact on both the national economy and our daily lives, most people begin by denying it. We slip into one of four common ways to discount things we’d rather not deal with:
“I don’t believe it.”
We simply deny the existence of any such concerns and refuse to consider them. This might include latching eagerly onto any few remaining naysayers for confirmation and comfort. But as the number of reputable naysayers dwindles, more people are forced to face the fact that “something” is happening.
“It’s not a problem.”
We may admit there’s a change taking place, but deny that it’s significant, seeing such things as climate change and economic fluctuations as part of a normal pattern that is nothing to concern ourselves with. Or we may incorporate the changes we see happening into our spiritual and religious beliefs, regarding them not as a problem, but a test of faith, a sign of a global spiritual awakening, or evidence of a long-awaited Apocalypse. Some may believe focusing on such problems makes them worse and that we should instead visualize, meditate, or pray for the world to be as we want it to be.
“Someone will fix it.”
We may admit major problematic changes are underway but conclude that there’s nothing we personally can do about them and we needn’t worry because technology, scientists, the government, or some expert authority will come up with a solution in time to save us.
“It’s useless.”
We may believe there’s nothing anyone can do about macro-problems, so why do anything, except perhaps eat, drink and be merry. What will be, will be.
Stage 2 – Semi-consciousness.
In spite of the various ways we may try to discount what’s happening to our environment (and consequently to our economy and whole way of life), as evidence mounts around us and the news coverage escalates, we may begin to feel a vague sense of eco-anxiety. Some express this as virulent anger at all this discussion about global warming. Others dissociate from their growing concern and misdirect their feelings toward other things in their lives, perhaps blaming family members or jobs for their undefined discomfort.
Stage 3 – The moment of realization.
At some point we may encounter something that breaks through our defenses and brings the inevitability and severity of the implications of our collective problems into full consciousness. We might read a particularly compelling article, learn more about the aftermath of Katrina, hear a news broadcast about polar bear deaths or rampant fires and flooding, see a documentary like “An Inconvenient Truth” or “The End of Suburbia.” Or — most dramatically – we might experience a natural disaster ourselves with all its personal and economic costs.
At such moments, suddenly we realize no matter how we try to explain away the changes that are happening, they are and will be accompanied by huge challenges to life as we know it and cause considerable pain and suffering for many, including ourselves and those we love.
Even if we believe all these disruptions are leading to a global spiritual awakening or a long awaited Apocalypse— even if we think some helpful new technology is going to emerge (hopefully soon)— we nonetheless begin to understand on a visceral level that the changes taking place will have dramatically unpleasant implications beyond anything we’ve faced in our lifetimes. In fact, we realize many of these uncomfortable changes are already underway and will be growing in coming months and years, affecting most of the things we love and cherish.
But like the character Neo in the 1999 movie The Matrix, even at this point we still have a choice. We can choose to swallow the metaphorical red pill and find out just how deep this rabbit hole goes and where it leads. Or we can take the soothing metaphorical blue pill and choose to “escape” from the nightmarish Wonderland of the rabbit hole we’ve fallen into by slipping back into the comfort of our favorite form of assuring ourselves that all is well.
But if, like Neo, we take “the red pill,” we wake up to the reality of our individual and collective situation. We get that the triple threat challenge facing us is a real Medusa monster. Once we’re awake, the problem is full-blown in our consciousness. It’s right in our face. It won’t let us turn away, and the force of it makes “waking up” incredibly painful.
The moment we realize — even briefly — that we’re slipping into a dangerously threatening new world that no longer makes sense according what we’ve always believed, our genetic wiring kicks in with predictable physiological and emotional threat responses that can take many forms.
Some of us become obsessive newswatchers, documentary filmgoers, internet compulsives or book readers, wanting to know more and more about what’s really happening. Loved ones may think we’ve gone nuts. Spouses may consider divorce; kids may decide mom and dad are hopeless cranks.
The more fragile or vulnerable among us may get depressed or experience panic attacks. If something about this current eco-trauma retriggers earlier traumas in our lives, we may have a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) reaction. Even the more resilient may throw themselves obsessively into save-the-planet and other activities, soon to become exhausted and weary from trying to do what no one person can.
Others, once they realize what’s happening, see it as a new business or political opportunity. These green business ventures can sometimes be helpful and productive, but at other times can actively circumvent or sabotage the efforts of those who are trying to solve the problems.
Stage 4 – A Point of No Return.
Once awakened, especially as economic and environmental changes intensify, most of us find there is no turning back. We find ourselves traveling deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Whatever methods we’ve used to avoid facing the coming changes is no longer successful to quell our personal concerns. We can no longer help but notice the continuing rapid progress of the bad trends – more expensive energy, higher costs of living, a weaker economy, more species in trouble, rising temperatures, more devastating severe weather events, increasing political, economic and military competition (wars) over remaining resources, etc. It all starts to make a dreadful sort of sense as we let in the enormity of the situation.
One of the most difficult aspects of this stage is the profound but unavoidable sense of isolation and disconnection we may feel when living in a different world from most of those around us, a world we can no longer escape from, but one few others seem to notice. The result is a bizarre sense of surrealism. Interaction and communication can become a challenge. How do we relate to a world that’s no longer real to us, but is business as usual to most? Do we try to reach out to others about the ugly new reality and endure their defenses? Is it better to indulge those who don’t yet see the reality we’ve stumbled into and act “as if” nothing has changed just to get along? Or might it be easier to withdraw from life as we’ve known it and turn into a hermit?
5. Despair, guilt, hopelessness, powerlessness.
The realization sets in that one person or even one group or community can’t stop the effects of such things as climate change and peak oil and their economic consequences from impacting millions of people around the planet and at home. We see this thing spiraling out of control and realize that our species, and even we individually, are responsible for much of what’s happening! As the mayor of Memphis said to the Los Angeles Times when a major heat-wave hit his city and most of the Midwest and South last summer, “This is pretty akin to a seismic event in the sense that there is no solution that we here in this room can come up with that will take care of everybody.”
Some have suggested that this stage is similar to the traditional grief process, and indeed, this is a time of grieving. But there is a significant difference between this awakening and the normal experience of grief. Grief that occurs after a loss usually ends with acceptance of what’s been lost and then one adjusts and goes on. But this is more like the process of accepting a degenerative illness. It’s not a one-time loss one can accommodate and simply move on. It is a chronic, on-going, permanent situation that will not only not improve, but actually continue to worsen and become more uncomfortable in the foreseeable future, probably for the entire lifetime of most people living today. This is what author James Howard Kunstler calls “The Long Emergency.”
Our grief and sorrow are also amplified by having to bear the pain of upbeat acquaintances who go merrily along in their denial, discounting their own uneasiness about what’s happening and wondering why we’re so “negative.”
Stage 6 – Acceptance, empowerment, action.
As we come to accept the limits of our general powerlessness, we also find the parameters of the power we do have in this strange new situation. We discover we no longer need to resist our current and emerging reality. We don’t need to feel compelled to save the entire world or to hold onto a world that no longer makes sense. We are freed, instead, to pursue what James Kunstler calls “the intelligent response, ” seeking and taking whatever creative, constructive action will best sustain those aspects of life that are truly most important to us in the context of the changes unfolding around us. At this point our curiosity and creativity kick in and we can begin following our natural instincts to find what is both feasible and rewarding to safeguard ourselves, our families, our communities and the planet.
And indeed, growing numbers of people are beginning to respond with a plethora of creative, socially and personally responsible actions along four paths that are similar to those identified by Joanna Macy in her book World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal and Richard Heinberg in Peak Everything: Waking up to the Century of Declines. We are finding individual and collective ways to:
Resist making matters worse.
What’s going on may or may not be inevitable, but we don’t have to speed it along. We can do at least one thing to ease or lessen the negative impact of these changes. We can join an environmental action group, plant a tree, bike to work, help with a protest march or write letters to our congressperson. Just doing our little bit to limit the damage eases the psychological distress we’re feeling, even if we’re not “saving the whole world.” Taking even a small stand for what Macy calls “the life-sustaining society” (as opposed to the life-destroying one) gives us back our dignity and sense of agency.
Raise our level of consciousness so we can maintain some serenity and not burn out in the midst of all this change. We might adopt a spiritual practice of some kind, take up meditation, expand our understanding of ecology or history, or spend time reconnecting with nature, learning to live our lives in harmony with the rest of the earth.
Build a lifeboat for ourselves and our loved ones.
Many people are already taking steps to create a richer yet more sustainable way of life better suited to weathering the new economic and environmental realities. Some are moving to less vulnerable or expensive locales. Others are simplifying their lives, starting to lower their energy use, or creating personal and community permaculture gardens. Still others are changing into more sustainable careers, joining relocalization efforts to safeguard their local economy, or adopting alternative ways to exchange needed goods and services. Learning more about these positive possibilities is vital. Until we can see that there are options, there’s no way out of despair except to return to dissociating or denying, which only makes us more vulnerable to the difficulties around us.
Join with others in small communities
for support and understanding. Don’t try to cope with this enormous challenge alone! Find others who share your concerns and views. Some people have formed reading or study groups around books like David Korten’s The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, Richard Heinberg’s Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, Cecile Andrews’ Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life, or Middle Class Life Boat by Paul and Sarah Edwards. Others are becoming active in relocalization efforts like those described on http://www.relocalize.net . Still others are joining together to turn their neighborhood into a sustainable “eco-hood” or exploring options for co-housing or eco-villages.
Taking some action in each of these four areas prevents us from getting stuck in panic and paralysis. It energizes us and re-establishes a sense of confidence and security in life. Does it mean we will no longer be plagued with concerns, doubts or even fear at times? No. The threat of what we face is huge and relentless. There’s never been anything like it in human history. All who awaken to the enormity of the challenges before us still slip and slide somewhere along this continuum at times. One day we may feel encouraged with our forward action, the next we may be back to despairing. Or we many need to take a mental holiday altogether for a few days or weeks so we can come back refreshed and reinvigorated, ready to work again on the survivable future we’re creating for ourselves and our loved ones.
When asked in an interview with The Turning Wheel if there are times when she ever thinks “Oh, no! This is impossible,” even Joanna Macy, who has been a leader in championing ways to address these changes, replied, “Every day.” But she goes on to explain that while she does think this at times, such times pass because she can’t think of anything more engaging and enjoyable than addressing the most pressing issues of our time.
Such wisdom seems to be the secret to living positively while navigating the painfully difficult stages of awakening until we get to the point where we can enjoy the daily challenges our dismaying situation presents to our imagination, our creativity and our deep and abiding love for the most valuable aspects of life.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
Things appear to disappear when you start asking questions about every peer.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:19 am
Our grandfathers took every bit and left us nothing but a hit.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I am fed up with these freaking ‘think tanks’, they need to be abolished RIGHT FREAKIN NOW.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Figures. The only way to bring housing prices down, is to have a recession. Alot of good that will do me. Apartment forever. lol. Beats FEMA camp I guess. Oh well. Maybe after we shoot a bunch of NWO traitors things will get back to sanity, and we can revise the system to benefit the poor and middle working classes, and provide land and housing for everyone. Anyone starting at the bottom today is totally f---ed. If your family didn’t buy in along time ago, and leave you something- your screwed. Get used to it.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The average home owner is losing 85,000 dollars of wealth this year due to the devaluation of houses. Hmmm. And mine only cost 79,000. Guesss I would have to pay someone to buy mine. lol.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:29 am
sadly huck this blood bought republic will only hold together if the tv/radio stations stop contriving news stroies and drama, which create stupid drama and further that stupiddrama, evolving it into RETARDED DRAMA.
Then goernment socialists or otherwise pull double think tactics whilst they squander our treasures and blood for this pathetic time in history with pathetic self agrandizing control freaks in charge of the chaos, which as we notice, isnt working very well.
The worlds populace needs a revolution of civility towards uncivil psychologicly damaged con artists, do not feed the masters who want to cage you after they incite you.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:36 am
RE: earthismadatmankind – YOU”RE WRONG! If they cannot incite us? They will! Watch! They’ll force our hand. But when we unite in the battlefields together out of necessity? We better Damn well remeber why and who brought us to that end.
And if we win. We better make Damn sure we get it right.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I invite all my Canadian friends to show we mean business on September 11th, 2008 and join the March on Ottawa 2008. We demand an inquiry into the 24 Canadian deaths on 911. If you can’t make it, at least sign the petition and get everyone you know to do so as well. The awakening call for everyone should have been building 7 of the World Trade Center. Buildings don’t fall on their own. American patriots, please join us as well while you can still get across the boarder.
http://www.marchonottawa2008.org/
May 4th, 2008 at 10:09 am
people laughed at me when I sold my 2 homes at the top in 2005 and bought gold under 450 per ounce with the proceeds.
I have rented even nicer houses since for far less per month than the cost to own.
Now I rent a beautiful 4100 sq foot low utility cost mansion on 3 rural acres for under $5 per sq foot per year.
Anybody still laughing?
When we get to a bottom in real estate I will likely be able to buy my old house back for less than the gold I got with its proceeds.
Policies of the private federal reserve are designed to create bubbles. Remember the dot.com bubble?
If you get trapped in one of them its because you were NOT paying attention.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
#19 You are absolutely correct yet, many will still believe that these things happen willy-nilly.