No Good Options, but Better than Doing Nothing

We live in interesting times!

The week has been historic in the financial and housing markets with all of the moves by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the regulatory agencies to soften the decline in housing prices and the increase in the foreclosure rate.

Excesses in housing with cheap money and lax lending standards, as well as enough fingers of blame for all parties to make it look like a circular firing squad, has led to where we are. As I have recently written in a column titled "I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help you", all of the policy options are pretty bad, and usually when the government gets involved in markets, the pain goes deeper and lasts longer. Time will tell as to whether this will hold true. After all, Congress has not made any impact on the situation yet, other than the usual hot air of promises and more promises. They still have plenty of time during this election year to make really bad policy decisions in legislation. Given the anti-mania in the housing market, some of it will actually get passed in all likelihood. Lenders will have money to lend, and the interest rates are attractive for right now.

The brief take-away is: all of the mucky-mucks will ensure that housing and the financial markets do not collapse right before the election.

For now 'le crisis de jour' has been averted, there's lots of activity and adjustments, panic has abated, and it's OK to buy and sell property.

Give me a call at 661-287-9164 if you want to buy or sell residential real estate in our market area.