The Housing Bubble

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports from California. “When Howard Little got a call last year about refinancing, he decided the time was right to pull money out of his home in Boulder Creek to invest in real estate. He bought a house in Sacramento and figured he’d have steady rental payments to supplement his disability income.”

“Instead, he lost the property in Sacramento to foreclosure, and fell behind on payments for his own home. His credit rating dropped and he couldn’t refinance. He put his five-bedroom, two-bath Boulder Creek home on the market, but with listings at all-time highs he hasn’t found a buyer.”

“He’s dropped the price from $680,000 to $650,000 and now $630,000. ‘Where I’m going from here I don’t know,’ he said.”

“Little is not alone. So far this year in Santa Cruz County: 301 property owners fell behind in their mortgage payments. 149 properties have gone into foreclosure. 70 properties have been sold at foreclosure sales.”

“While conditions are more severe in neighboring Monterey County, Santa Cruz County is feeling the pain, too. Mortgage delinquencies have doubled compared to last year; foreclosure proceedings have tripled and the number of foreclosure sales is seven times what it was.”

“‘The people we see can’t get a loan because their property value has gone down,’” said Soquel attorney William Purdy, who said his office receives a half-dozen mortgage complaints every few days. ‘A cruel vise is starting to reach a lot of people.’”

“As the number of foreclosed homes grows, there is a domino effect, with each one depressing the price of every other house in the neighborhood. ‘In some areas, prices are spiraling downward,’ Purdy said.”

“Rod Quartararo, mortgage lending manager at Bay Federal Credit Union, found eight months ago that adjustable rate mortgages comprised more than 65 percent of the loans in the past two years. Many of these mortgages came with risky features like interest-only payments, rates that jump and loan balances that grow.”

“‘I am afraid we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg at this point,’ Quartararo said. ‘The buyers that were created with these types of loans no longer exist to support present values. We may have buyers for $400,000 homes but not for $700,000 homes.”

The San Francisco Chronicle. “The Bay Area real estate market has become a giant game of chicken. Just 18 months ago, buyers swarmed open houses waving piles of cash. Now they are staying away in droves, waiting for prices to fall.”

“‘Buyers don’t want to buy until we’re at the bottom of the market,’ said Dean Wehrle, VP for Northern California of the Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors. ‘It’s the converse of 2003, ‘04 and ‘05, when people would jump in the market because of the frenzy, thinking that they had to get in now because appreciation would go on forever in the double digits.’”

“Reduced asking prices have become commonplace, with anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of listings in Bay Area counties reporting price cuts, according to a ZipRealty analysis.”

“‘People are trying to time the market,’ said Patrick Duffy, managing director for Hanley Wood Market Intelligences. ‘Before it was fear-based: If I don’t buy now, I may never get in. Now the fear is on the opposite end: If I buy now, the price could decline in the short run.’”

“In the Bay Area, new home sales are down 59 percent for April compared with a year earlier, according to Duffy from Hanley Wood.”

“Brian Catalde, president of the National Association of Home Builders, said that until a year ago, customers used to make two visits to sales offices before buying. ‘Now they’re making eight to 12 visits,’ he lamented. ‘Why don’t they want to pull the trigger?’”

“Catalde hired a pollster to ask buyers that question. Of 1,000 people surveyed, 725 said they’re afraid the builder will lower the price so they will ‘lose’ their down payment because their house is worth less.”

The Fresno Bee. “Sales of new homes in Fresno County slid 16.7% in April as the real estate market continued to struggle, according to figures released Friday.”

“Builders sold 284 houses in Fresno County in April at a median price of $304,950, down about 10% from April 2006, the California Building Industry Association reported.”

“Gregory Paguin of The Gregory Group consulting firm said developers in the central San Joaquin Valley are struggling with excess supply. ‘There are more projects on market, more inventory and more pressure,’ he said.”

“‘We thought [the market] was bottoming in the first couple months of this year, but then the subprime issue hit and now buyers are on the sidelines a little bit,’ he said.” “In Tulare County, sales were down 37.1% for the month, and the median price was off 5.8%.”

The Orange County Register. “As the Orange County-based subprime lending industry melted down this spring, lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento sounded the alarm.”

“Last week, as the Legislature passed its midyear mark and the deadline for bills to exit their house of origin, Machado sounded disappointed. ‘There’s been some concern, but there hasn’t been a lot of action,’ said Sen. Michael Machado, sponsor of two lending-related bills that survived the Senate and now face the Assembly. The story in Congress has been similar.”

“The need for consumer help is mounting in Orange County. Through April, 3,499 homes received default notices, according to DataQuick, a 136 percent jump from 2006. Over the same period, DataQuick reported 755 foreclosures in Orange County, compared with just 89 foreclosures a year earlier.”

“Natalie Lohrenz, director of counseling for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Orange County, said people facing financial distress because of home payment problems climbed to 40 percent of her agency’s visitors, up from the usual 20 percent.”

“‘It’s going on everywhere, but most places not as severely as here,’ Lohrenz said. ‘People here had to contort themselves into pretzels to qualify for loans.’”

“‘What we’re seeing in the subprime market, to a large extent, is unprecedented in terms of increases in defaults and foreclosures and the sudden change taking place,’ said Kurt Eggert, a law professor at Chapman University and member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. ‘I think we’re entering uncharted waters.’”

“There’s concern about legislation having unintended consequences on the home-finance system. Proposals to eliminate stated-income loans, 100-percent financing or interest-only loans could inadvertently foster more foreclosures by preventing current subprime borrowers from refinancing, said Sen. Lou Correa.”

“‘We’re always doing the last scam, trying to catch up,’ Correa said. ‘You figure them out only after a lot of people have gotten hurt.’”

The Lawrence Journal World reports from Kansas. “The number of foreclosures has increased across the country, and Douglas County is no exception. In the first four months of 2007, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office auctioned 39 homes. Comparatively, in the first four months of 2006, 28 Douglas County homes were auctioned at a sheriff’s sale. That’s a roughly 40 percent increase.”

“Many more homeowners, closer to 80, have received notices from the sheriff’s office that auction was pending unless they paid up on their mortgages.”

“Robert Baker, counselor at Lawrence’s Housing and Credit Counseling Inc., said a main reason for the increase in foreclosures is a change in the economy. ‘The economic times aren’t quite as heady as they were in the go-go ’90s,’ Baker said.”

“Jonathan Becker, a bankruptcy and real estate attorney, lists four reasons for the rise in foreclosures: a lessening of credit standards, an increase in the kinds of loan options, a lack of home value appreciation, and a decrease of new homebuyers’ financial experience and education.”

“Combined with any catastrophic event such as a job layoff, reduced income, illness or car accident, ‘you’ve got a recipe for foreclosure,’ Becker said.”

“Becker said he is starting to see a lot more homeowners come into his office who are caught with loans that carry interest rates that are suddenly going up. ‘The 2-28 loan was becoming the welcome mat into the house. It’s now becoming the prison bars when the 28 (years) kicks in,’ Becker said.”

The Rocky Mountain News from Colorado. “The Denver-area housing market likely will buck this year’s national trend of falling home prices and sales, and may appreciate next year by as much as 10 percent.”

“At least that’s the assessment offered Wednesday by the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. ‘All real estate is local,’ said Lawrence Yun.”

“He said the Denver area just recently started to recover from the downturn of the tech train wreck that cost the region tens of thousands of high-paying jobs since late 2000.”

“‘Denver did not really participate in the boom of other cities for the last couple of years,’ Yun said. ‘But Denver is ripe for a turnaround. You still have a high inventory problem that needs a little working off, but I think this year your prices and sales will be positive.’”

“At the end of May, there were 29,110 unsold homes in the Denver area, a 4.6 percent drop from the 30,457 in May 2006. ‘I think you will outperform the nation as a whole this year and next year,’ Yun added. ‘I feel by the end of 2008, your housing prices could rise by better than 5 percent and as much as 10 percent.’”

“Broker Todd L. Crosbie agreed with Yun’s assessment. ‘Simply put, Denver has had some really negative press during the past couple of years because of its foreclosures,’ said Crosbie, who has been selling real estate since 1986. ‘I’ve seen positive cycles and I’ve seen negative cycles. While it’s not a boom market right now, it is not gloom and doom, either. Homes are still selling for a good price, and if priced correctly, they will move pretty fast.’”

“The Denver area home sales market is flat overall, with two exceptions: sales of foreclosed homes and homes priced at more than $1 million.”

“Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Residential in Colorado, cautioned that a surplus of high-end infill developments, from Hilltop to Sloan’s Lake, is cutting developers’ profit margins.”

“Sam Barnes, a broker in Westminster, said the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market eventually will help the foreclosure crisis.”

“‘The best news is that when all of these subprime lenders took hits, it washed a lot of people out of the market who were buying homes that shouldn’t have been,’ Barnes said.”

The Denver Post. “A rally organized by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN, demanded the Federal Reserve crack down on high-rate mortgages.”

“ACORN groups across the country gathered in front of Federal Reserve Bank branches with a list of demands, including the elimination of prepayment penalties in subprime loans and a one- year moratorium on foreclosures so borrowers late on their mortgages could set up payment plans.”

“‘We’re letting (politicians) know that this foreclosure thing is getting ridiculous. It’s the mortgages; they’re rip-offs. They’re predatorial,’ Melvin Scott said.”

“Facing a sale date only 12 days away…the Scotts said they refinanced two years ago to pay bills and that an adjustable-rate mortgage was the only loan the bank offered.”

“Gov. Bill Ritter has endorsed five bills to address the problem; the bills are not expected to help those already in foreclosure but should prevent future foreclosures with tighter regulations on mortgage brokers.”

“Colorado led the nation in rate of foreclosures for much of last year, and the state is on pace to record more than 37,000 foreclosures by year-end, an increase of about 30 percent from 2006.”

“Amid the soaring home prices, the rock-bottom jobless rates, the traffic jams and the worker signing bonuses, one indicator typifies the giddy exuberance of the new energy boom: $56 double shots of Grand Marnier 150.”

“Coming back is the big question in Mesa County. Can the economic boost currently provided by the energy industry keep coming back, month after month and year after year?”

“Here in the commercial hub of western Colorado, raw memories of the last colossal energy bust are never far from the surface.”

“‘There’s that ever-lingering taste in the mouths of people who remember the oil shale bust,’ said Mesa State College professor John Redifer.”

“Home prices are soaring. The median value for single-family homes in Mesa County has gone from $129,000 in 2003 to $151,000 in 2005 to $196,000 this year, an appreciation rate of 52 percent in four years.”

“Building permits for single-family homes in Grand Junction are 20 percent higher this year compared with 2005, with some new homes in the Redlands area west of town approaching $2 million.”

“One beneficiary has been Bob Fuoco, whose Fuoco Motor Co. in Grand Junction has been one of the main suppliers of the ubiquitous white pickup trucks favored by oil and gas drillers and related service companies. ‘Every month this year we have exceeded our best sales ever,’ Fuoco said.”

“That’s well and good, said winery co-owner Bob Witham, but that doesn’t alleviate his concern about the sustainability of the boom. ‘You really need to be thinking about what happened 25 years ago,’ he said. ‘History repeats itself, and that’s a scary thing for me. I wonder if people realize that it could crash just as fast as it has gone up.’”

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Inman News, “The same forces that built up the housing boom also played a major role in its drop-off, according to the latest annual housing market report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.”

“‘Except in the few areas facing real economic distress, this housing downturn has been driven largely by the market’s own excesses. Chief among these is the oversupply of homes triggered by inflated demand from investors, second-home buyers and others intent on getting in on rapidly appreciating prices,’ according to ‘The State of the Nation’s Housing’ report.”

“It is uncertain when the real estate recovery will begin, the report states. ‘Now that the downturn is in full swing, the question of duration hangs over the market.’”

The Boston Globe. “The median price of a single-family home in Greater Boston has dropped 3 percent in the current slowdown, to $402,200 in 2006. At that price, a house costs 5.4 times the median household income of $74,773 for the region. The standard for affordability is 3 to 3 1/2 times median household income, according to the Harvard center.”

“‘It is becoming increasingly clear that the market will not return to a day where everyone who worked could afford a place to live,’ said Nicolas Retsinas, director of the center.”

“House prices would have to fall a dizzying 35 to 44 percent, to the $224,000-to-$262,000 range, before being affordable to a broad swath of the population, as they were in the mid-1990s in the aftermath of the previous housing-market correction.”

The Boston Herald. “‘I think the message here is as long as they don’t have to sell their homes (they haven’t lost their jobs) they can wait it out and at some point, the underlying demand for housing will return and they will do OK,’ Retsinas said. ‘I think this was a wake-up call. At the base of this is that homes are for living in, not investing in.’”

“The question of making homes and apartments more affordable, he said, is complex.”

“‘It’s not just the cost of housing; it has to do with wages and the disconnect between the labor market and the housing market. By that I mean, in our economy, the fastest growing jobs are often in the service sector, which traditionally has paid lower wages,’ Retsinas said. ‘We’ve got to find a bridge between the labor market and the housing market. I’m not recommending anything, but to extrapolate, it means that one of the parties that needs to get engaged in the issue of affordable housing is employers.’”

“According to the report, ‘the problems in the housing market put an end to the big lift that the economy enjoyed since the 2001 recession….Though builders cut back on housing starts, the number of vacant homes for sale rose by more than 500,000 from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of 2006 and continued to rise in the first quarter of 2007.’”

“‘Until some of the excess inventory is absorbed by the demand cycle and credit conditions stabilize, housing will continue to struggle and home prices will fall in more areas,’ the report said.”

The Toll Brothers Form 10-Q. “Net income in the six-month and three-month periods ended April 30, 2007 was $91.0 million and $36.7 million, respectively, as compared to $338.8 million and $174.9 million in the comparable periods of fiscal 2006.”

“We recognized $216.6 million and $119.7 million of inventory write-downs in the six-month and three-month periods ended April 30, 2007, respectively.”

“Our backlog of $4.15 billion at April 30, 2007 decreased 32% compared to our backlog of $6.07 billion at April 30, 2006. Backlog includes the value of homes under contract but not yet delivered to our home buyers.”

“Beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 and continuing throughout fiscal 2006 and into the third quarter of fiscal 2007, we have experienced a slowdown in new contracts signed. We believe this slowdown is attributable to a decline in consumer confidence, an overall softening of demand for new homes, an oversupply of homes available for sale, the inability of some of our home buyers to sell their current home and the direct and indirect impact of the turmoil in the sub-prime mortgage loan market.”

“We attribute the reduction in demand to concerns on the part of prospective home buyers about the direction of home prices, due in part to many home builders’ advertising price reductions and increased sales incentives, and concerns by the prospective home buyers about being able to sell their existing homes. In addition, we believe speculators and investors are no longer helping to fuel demand.”

“Non-speculative buyer cancellations are also adding to the supply of homes in the marketplace. In the six-month and three-month periods ended April 30, 2007, home buyers cancelled 828 contracts and 384 contracts, respectively, or approximately 24% and 19%, respectively, of the gross number of contracts signed in the respective periods.”

“In the comparable periods of fiscal 2006, homebuyers cancelled 371 contracts and 205 contracts, or approximately 9% of gross contracts signed in each of the periods. In the quarter ended October 31, 2006, homebuyers cancelled approximately 37% of the gross contracts signed.”

The Financial Times. “In a new report, Standard & Poor’s says if the UK housing and mortgage markets weaken, it believes lenders with high exposure to specialist mortgage lending could feel the impact.”

“S&P pinpoints subprime mortgages as a ‘new and untested’ part of the UK market where if there were problems ‘the scale of potential losses could be high.’ although it acknowledges that the market differs from that of the US, partly because the relaxation of lending criteria has been ‘less severe.’”

“Nonetheless, lenders offering subprime mortgages were keen to increase market share as profit margins are attractive and ‘credit standards are under pressure.’”

The Contrarian Chronicles. “This week I’ll turn my attention to those who have been gullible enough to buy the sliced-and-diced mortgages that found their way into collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other exotica.”

“At a recent presentation to pension managers, a Bear Stearns shill described the bottom rung of the CDO ladder as follows: ‘It has a very high cash yield to it…I think a lot of people are confused about what this product is and how it works.’”

“At the presentation, she likened CDOs to financial institutions in terms of having strict oversight: ‘The outside agencies that oversee these structures are the rating agencies,’ she said.”

“However, her comment drew the following from Gloria Aviotti, managing director of global structured finance for rating service Fitch: ‘It’s not accurate. We don’t provide any oversight.’”

“That view was echoed by Yuri Yoshizawa, group managing director of structured finance at another rating service, Moody’s Investors Service: ‘It’s a common misperception,’ he said. ‘All we’re providing is a credit assessment and comments.’”

From Bloomberg. “American International Group, the world’s largest insurer, will help subprime borrowers keep their homes in a deal with regulators who said the company’s banking unit had made inappropriate loans.”

“AIG will add as much as $50 million this quarter to the $128 million it previously set aside to administer new, more affordable loans, refund fees and hire a consultant to reform mortgage policies, Kevin Petrasic, a spokesman with the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, said Friday.”

“‘Loans were made based on underwriting criteria we didn’t think were sufficient,’ Petrasic said. ‘We’ve directed the institution to identify borrowers who were put into loan products that were inappropriate for them and to refinance the loans.’”

“The loans covered in the agreement with AIG were mostly adjustable rate mortgages, Petrasic said. They were originated from July 2003 through May 2006 by Wilmington Finance, which is owned by AIG.”

National Mortgage News. “I recently asked my broker contact how the Long Island market was holding up. This is what he wrote: ‘Not good at all is the right answer….I can’t wait for these mortgage companies that advertise 1% mortgages to disappear. The ads are clearly misleading and the reps never adequately describe the downside of neg-ams.’”

“‘Option ARMs are appropriate for a small portion of the market and clearly inappropriate for anyone looking for long-term predictability in their mortgage payments. The next time a bank blames the mortgage broker for the foreclosure mess now looming let’s remind them of the wholesaler ads touting 4.5% YSP.’”

“The biggest rout in the Treasury bond market in three years is making Wall Street’s bond bulls more bearish. Investors are ‘throwing in the towel,’ said Robert Auwaerter, who oversees about $350 billion as head of fixed- income investments at Vanguard Group.”

“‘Momentum could be toward even higher yields in the next couple weeks,’ said Gary Pollack, who helps oversee $12 billion as head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank AG’s Private Wealth Management unit. ‘If rates rise overseas, they will become competitive for the U.S. and therefore rates here have to rise.’”

“Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, is sticking with his forecast for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in a ’schizophrenic’ market.”

“‘We’re having a housing bust,’ said Gross. ‘To the extent that continues based on these higher interest rates and economic growth stays weak, inflation is a little lower and ultimately the Fed may lower six months down the road.’”

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. “Squeezed by rising property taxes and homeowners insurance rates, and frustrated by crowded roads and schools, increasing numbers of residents are moving from Florida. Evidence is mounting that the migration boom it experienced in the first half of the decade is over. Many housing analysts say these are signs not of a long-term population shift but of the slumping real estate market.”

“‘It’s temporary,’ said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wachovia Corp. ‘Housing prices will correct. We need a couple of years with no hurricanes to right the ship.’”

“Growth has been so strong for so long in Florida that even wondering about it is momentous, said Gary Mormino, professor of Florida studies at the University of South Florida. ‘This is the first time since the recession of the 1970s when real question marks appear about the future of Florida,’ he said.”

“About 90 percent of the state’s population growth since 1950 has stemmed from migration, said Stanley Smith, director of the state Bureau of Economic and Business Research. This stream of net immigration has clearly dwindled since statewide sales of existing homes peaked two years ago this month.”

“Most of South Florida, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties- has seen declines in numbers of public school students and licensed drivers in the past year. So has Pinellas County, which lost 2,265 students last school year and 7,601 drivers in 2006.”

“‘The population surveys we’re getting from government agencies are not anywhere near what’s happening in real life,’ said (Consultant) Jack McCabe, who said the state, and certainly its most crowded and expensive counties, may be losing more migrants than it is gaining.”

“‘It’s anecdotal evidence but it’s a preponderance of evidence. The idea of 1, 000 people per day moving to Florida is an absolute myth at this point,’ McCabe said.”

“‘In the past, Florida was a low-tax, low-cost, low-wage state,’ said Bennett, ‘but increasingly it is just a low-wage state and that’s a serious concern.’”

“Meanwhile, Florida’s housing market ‘underwent a large sales slump last year,’ said Lawrence Yun, an economist with the National Association of Realtors.”

“An agent for Atlas Van Lines moved more people out of the state than in for the first time in memory last year, said Bob Glenn, general manager. Many more out-of-state moves have been delayed by the sluggish housing market, he said.”

“‘We’ve got people who have been on the active list (to move) going back to September and they still haven’t been able to sell,’ he said. ‘People are almost being held hostage by their homes.’”

“The state’s housing prices were overinflated by speculation during the boom, said Vitner, the Wachovia economist. Even with recent declines in Florida prices, the median-priced home in South Florida costs more than twice as much as one in Atlanta, according to the NAR.”

“If housing prices continue to fall and lawmakers can reduce taxes and control insurance rates, the thinking goes, Florida will resume attracting Northerners, including a large share of the 77-million baby boomer retirees.”

From Florida Today. “Several homeowners asked where all the money from skyrocketing home values has gone in the past three years, adding that cities and counties should have utilized better budgeting.”

“Retiree Ron Chambers said local governmental agencies should have planned better during the real estate boom that saw home values, and property taxes, launch like a space shuttle.”

“‘Anybody could see that it was a bubble,’ Chambers said. ‘They should’ve paid off financial debt rather than use it on services. Now if you’re going to make a cut, you darn sure better do that wisely.’”

“Michael McNamara is a real estate broker who owns several investment properties. He said the last assessment on one of his properties was $386,000, up from $209,000. That drastically increased his tax bill on that property last year.”

“‘I thought it was pathetic,’ he said about the (property tax) proposal in the state Legislature. ‘I just don’t understand it. They’re talking about rolling back to the year that caused all the trouble. They need to roll back to at least three years ago.’” “Retiree Jerome Barry would like to sell his 1954 Loveridge Heights home, worth about $200,000, and buy something beachside for about $400,000. But he knows his $1,351 tax bill would more than triple.”

“‘It puts me out of the market,’ he said, adding that many people are in the same situation. ‘It’s a stalemate.’”

The Orlando Sentinel. “Karl Mooney recently wrapped up a nine-day training session with Signature GMAC Realty in Orlando, to become a sales agent. ‘Some people might question our sanity,’ said Mooney, a longtime educator. But Mooney said real estate still offers opportunities, and he figures that, with the market slower, ‘it’s a good time to get in and learn the business.’”

“Membership in the Orlando Regional Realtor Association has fallen from a peak of 12,400 last December to 11,970, reflecting the recent slowdown in housing sales. The 3.5 percent membership drop is less than the trade group had anticipated, but Randy Martin, president of the Orlando Association, said he still expects the group’s membership to dwindle further this year.”

“‘The business is just not out there. Some people haven’t had a closing in a year,’ said Martin, an agent in Winter Park.”

“One indicator shows that the pipeline for future Realtors is shrinking: Real-estate classes are attracting fewer students. ‘The numbers are definitely down at all of the larger schools around the state,’ said Dick Fryer, founder of the largest private real-estate school in the Orlando area.”

“‘We’re all seeing about a 40 percent reduction,’ Fryer said, and ‘it has to translate to lower membership [for Realtor associations] down the line.’”

“The National Association of Realtors’ membership survey showed that, for newcomers in the field, the pickings are slim as they compete with veterans. Realtors in the business for two years or less earned a median of $15,300 last year; those with at least 16 years of experience earned $76,200.”

The Times Union reports on Georgia. “Just a year or two ago, many people were in a frenzy to buy their first homes or move up into a new one as mortgage companies pushed low ‘teaser’ interest rates, and all the packing up and moving was good for business owners.”

“But as the market has pulled back with foreclosures rising and property values stagnating, Georgia companies from construction supply stores to Realtors to homebuilders also have seen their sales slow down.”

“Moving companies have weathered the same concerns. ‘It was a horrible winter, and a lot of moving companies went out of business,’ said Eric De Weerd, owner of All My Sons Moving and Storage of Savannah. ‘With the drop down that we had in home sales and interest rates going up, essentially what it did was cause less people to move than normal.’”

“Erik Christensen, president of Atlanta-based Bulldog Movers, estimates that business is off about 20 percent compared with the same period last year. The housing slowdown is a major reason.”

“Economists say that Georgia’s housing market missed the brunt of the bubble burst because selling prices never got as overinflated as in some other parts of the country. So home values in the state have remained fairly stable, even though selling activity has dropped off substantially, said Jeff Humphreys, at the University of Georgia.”

“‘The people who derive their income, businesses that derive their profits from [home sales], they’re feeling the pain right now,’ Humphreys said.” “People seemed to be holding off. It was across the country. It wasn’t just Georgia,’ said De Weerd.”

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.