August 10th, Book Updates E-mail this blog post to a friend. For reasons articulated here yesterday, your house will likely be worth less by next summer. Another egg on Wall Street and a run at those slippery French bankers give us the perfect omelette. Glacial growth in the US and a painful restructuring in Europe. The result: lower demand, cheaper commodities, economic wimpiness, stingy corporations, swampy wages and lousy real estate sales.
In fact, events of the last few days might mean higher unemployment and far less consumer confidence for some time to come. In fact, hours ago an interesting list was published of the 10 American housing markets that will collapse over the coming months. The compilers factored in local incomes, house prices, jobless rates, house sales levels and momentum. Layered on top is the new normal — a near-recession guaranteeing recovery will take a lot longer than anyone anticipated, in an environment of financial disarray.
This is what happens when real estate goes bad. Homeowners get nailed as values fall and equity simply vanishes. Say, sounds familiar. In fact, I thought it might be useful — or at least maniacal — to give some thought to those places in Canada which are most, or least, at risk. Are ya in? Yes, you can renovate it, play with the remaining inhabitants, or market it in Guangdong.
Free choice. Details to come. Windsor, which is across from Detroit and shares much of the auto heartbreak that took Motor City down. Except Windsor is clean, middle-class, reasonably upscale and cheap.
The bubble mood popped in this place long ago, and there are now some houses selling for the price of minivans. But not the Korean kind. Little downside here. Halifax, which will be affected already happening , but to a lesser extent than in the urban wastelands to the west. The largest city in Atlantic Canada, it actually has an economy, helped along by a government and the military. And a free lobster dinner.
