Here is an interesting graph from the New York Times showing the history of home values from 1890 to the present adjusted for inflation. …
click on image for larger version
If you were lucky, you sold a house after it went UP.
If you were unlucky you got stuck with a house that went DOWN in value.
Don’t look for much help from the U.S. government.
… This is a HOUSING crisis, not a BANKING crisis, yet $700+ billion has gone to help bankers and only $75 billion to “help” homeowners. The banker’s money has mainly been spent and the homeowner money has hardly been touched. If this is a HOUSING crisis, why aren’t more resources being devoted to housing? …
I, Cringely – Wall Street and Main Street Don’t Cross
Happily — for me — the value of my Hubba tent is holding up really well.
I can tell you that the package to help out homeowners is fairly useless in some of the hardest hit areas, such as Nevada where we live and own an upside down mortgaged home.
Apparently your mortgage cannot be more than 5% upside down to receive the assistance but I am quite sure that the majority of us with upside mortgages are far greater than 5%. And this is the actual problem.
I waited for this package to be announced, but was bitterly disappointed….