Is the Housing Market in Ruins?

Filed in archive Housing on January 17, 2006

According to this commentator the primary cause of the housing bubble is the huge debt that America is carrying.

"Rising real estate prices have created the illusion that homeowners are now wealthier. They are using their homes as collatoral, getting home equity loans, and using the funds on luxury items. Most of this expenditure is going goods produced elsewhere, and hence the exploding current account deficit. Of course, Uncle Sam hasn?t helped. The government's budget deficit last year was $319 billion. While smaller than the record $413 billion in 2004, it still was the third-highest ever."

Go here to see a list and graphs of some of the most overvalued real estate markets in America

Singapore to Guard against Risk of falling U. S. Property PricesGovernment of Singapore Investment Corp., which manages more than $100 billion of foreign reserves, said it may buy real estate in India and Brazil for the first time to guard against the risk of falling U.S. property prices.

``Whether it's going to be a bubble or a slow leak is hard to say,'' Seek Ngee Huat, president of GIC Real Estate Pte, said in an interview. ``We will explore new markets in places like Brazil and India. There are high risks'' in the U.S. housing market.

Are things really as bad as most are saying? While nobody can know for certain, I think that it will depend upon what part of the country you live in. Certain areas are relatively unaffected, while others, as the graphs show, are at great risk.