It’s funny how catastrophes linger in our collective memory, but near-catastrophes fade.
Fifteen years ago, the “housing bubble” that developed during the Bush administration finally collapsed, and almost took down the U.S. banking system with it. To the point where the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) ran a negative fund balance, due to the wave of bank failures (below).
Source: FDIC, , courtesy of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), s
By now, most have forgotten how crazy housing prices were in some parts of the country. And what extraordinary measures the Federal Reserve took to avoid a complete collapse of the U.S. financial system.
We’re still dealing with the fallout from the 2008 near-catastrophe. In particular, that led to more than a decade during which the Federal Reserve kept interest rates low. Lower than the underlying rate of inflation, in fact. As I see it, the Fed recapitalized a bankrupt U.S. banking industry on the backs of U.S. savers.
But that era of below-zero real interest began to end a couple of years ago.
And nothing much has happened. Yet.
Yesterday, a friend pointed out that some economic analysts see the U.S. housing market as once again ripe for a collapse in prices. Given that I own a house, I thought it was well worth taking the time to look at current U.S. housing market data. And while I was originally skeptical, I’d now have to say, he has a point. There’s not a lot of sunshine in the current housing market data.
Continue reading Post #1848: Housing market data.
