Sec. of Housing: We are in the middle of the housing crisis

[babsbunny]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/10/sec-of-housing-we-are-in-the-middle-of-the-housing-crisis/?iref=werecommend

Posted: 01:15 PM ET

From CNN Political Producer Kristi Keck

Steve Preston says there are too many homes on the market and not enough buyers.


(CNN) — Steve Preston, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said Sunday that the country is “pushing through the middle” of the housing crisis.

There is a surplus of homes on the market, but not enough customers, he said.

“We need new homebuyers to come back into this marketplace. And we have to work hard to stem the tide of foreclosures so we don't have more of those homes coming into the inventories,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Preston said the roots of the problem are multifaceted and no one person is to blame.

"I think there was confusion at the closing table as to what people were getting into. I think you had builders overbuilding in many of these markets, and as a result, needing to sell that inventory and doing so aggressively.

[MrSlayer]

1. This is a good time to buy.

Prices are down. I'm thinking of purchasing a cheap fixer upper to rent out.

[gratuitous]

2. Oh, well, as long as no one's to blame

Certainly not deregulation of the mortgage market, or predatory lending pratices, or "creative" financing. No, we can't possibly blame any one person, or industry, or political party that made it all possible.

[Vidar]

3. Duh. Prices are down because of evictions, foreclosures & tax sales.

[Demeter]

7. Due to Bad Loans and Unemployment and Lack of Health Care

It's an economic problem, not a housing problem.

[indepat]

4. Preston's words sound like simplistic psycho-babble to me

:D

[Warpy]

5. Overbuilding

was to satisfy suckers who thought flipping houses was a sure way to fast, easy money: just buy a trophy house, keep it empty for a couple of years, then sell it to a bigger sucker and pocket the difference. No money down! Interest only loans! Sure thing!

Oops.

As somebody who saw her town being ringed by huge developments of these things starting about six years ago and snapped up by mostly out of state speculators, I find it odd that they didn't say something about this long ago.

Now my town, and I strongly suspect other towns in the boom areas out west, has a tremendous oversupply of the wrong type of housing and a shortage of smaller starter and family houses.

[izquierdista]

6. How odd is that?

I read in another thread where foreigners are buying up foreclosed properties all over the place.