The Scariest Financial Chart of the United States Bar None

[BR_Parkway]

http://housingstory.net/2010/06/24/the-scariest-financial-chart-of-the-united-states-bar-none/

[msongs]

1. here banks r trying to get pre-crash prices for repos! they are nuts so houses r sitting unwanted nt

[jtuck004]

2. Our new neighbor bought a home that sold at a bank short-sale

after a foreclosure. The guy that remodelled and sold it to him seemed to have convinced him that it was a good deal because it was $27K cheaper than it's highest sales price years ago.

He talked about selling it in a couple years, figured he would "break even".

I didn't say anything to pop his bubble, but I was looking at the county auditors site, and their projected values for next year already show his house having dropped about $15,000 due to local market conditions (mine has too). I hope it works out better for him, but I suspect it will be at least 5 years, maybe longer, before he can break even.

I can remember a time when only new cars had the reputation of being worth less as soon as you drove them off the lot.

[maxsolomon]

3. The info is disturbing, but man, that's one bad graphic

X goes back a half year whereas the others go back a decade? What are the up and down arrows for?

[yella_dawg]

4. Scary?

Incomprehensible.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. I'm willing to bet that somewhere, on that site, there's a link to an outfit selling gold.

Just a hunch.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Your hunch would be wrong

There's no mention of gold, either directly or indirectly, on that site.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. My bad. I guess I should just commence freaking all the fuck out, now.

Especially since I'm facing such a concise, irrefutably frightening graph.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. If you clicked on the link

you would find that it is run by some guy who has connections with the mortgage industry. But not gold.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. I did click on the link. Lots of ads. Like you say, no gold. I was just guessing, there.

As for dude's connections to the "mortgage industry", it seems to be to one outfit, which has about 50 ads on his site.

Color me just ever so slightly skeptical, that's all.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. You have every reason to be skeptical

When I saw all those mortgage ads, especially from one company, I thought, OK, nothing like a little hyperbole to drum up a little mortgage-related business.

As for gold, it's been about the only decent investment I've been able to make since the high-interest days of the early '90s. It's not for everybody, of course, and if someone doesn't know anything about gold, they should stay away from it. If someone wants to dabble in it, they should at least do a good deal of homework beforehand, including reading and studying various coin hobby publications. But they should always stay away from market hucksters.

[leveymg]

6. Under these circumstances, the banks should modify those loans to avoid more foreclosures

But, Congress and the White House have refused to pressure mortgage lenders on loan modification and cramdowns. The result is a rising rate of foreclosures within a collapsing market that serves neither the public interest nor balance sheet of the industry.

[Number23]

12. Rec'd. This is awful

[rucky]

13. How do you explain this chart?:

Look at the Y axis & compare it to the OP's data for home sales. Something's not right.

source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/01/existing-home-sales-plummet-in-december-should-we-worry/34118/

[DCBob]

14. Im not scared.. explain it to me..

The "scary" red line has leveled off and looks like its dropping. Isnt that good?