"US home values plunge $5.9 trillion" by Bloomberg News | December 10, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - US homeowners have lost about $5.9 trillion in value since the housing market’s peak in March 2006 as mounting foreclosures and the recession weighed on prices, according to Zillow.com.
Almost half a trillion dollars was wiped out this year through November as housing headed for a third straight annual decline. New foreclosures and higher mortgage rates in 2010 may hinder a rebound, the property data service said yesterday.
“A phenomenal amount of wealth has been erased since the housing bust,’’ Stan Humphries, the chief economist for Seattle-based Zillow, said Tuesday in an interview. “For many households, most of their wealth is tied up in real estate.’’
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Employers have cut more than 7.2 million jobs since the start of the recession in December 2007. The slowing of property declines because of a government tax credit for first-time buyers and record-low mortgage rates will be tested as more foreclosures reach the market and borrowing costs rise....
And yet the government and MSM have been telling us the housing market is improving.
More than two-thirds of the 154 markets tracked by Zillow have lost value this year....
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That's worse than a lump coal -- which you can burn to keep warm in your s*** house, America.
