Economic Intersection Article of the Week
Guest author: Keith Jurow is the author of the MVP Housing Market Report. This article was posted at Minyanville with the title "There Is No Housing Bottom in Sight"
At the end of June 2011, macromarkets.com released the results of a poll in which 108 leading economists and housing market analysts were asked to predict the direction of home prices from now until 2015.
All except four of them predicted that housing markets around the country would hit bottom no later than the end of 2012 before climbing again. Only one of them thought that home prices would not bottom until the end of 2013.
By way of contrast, a survey of consumers released in May by trulia.com and realtytrac.com found that 54% thought that a housing market recovery would not occur until "2014 or later."
My premise is simple: There is no housing bottom in sight. To test this assertion, let's take a brief look at three major metro markets and see what I've found.