Toxic Soup: $4 Gas & Housing Double Dip
How much longer will the US economy be able to take this?
CNBC
May 9, 2011
Home Values See Biggest Drop Since 2008
U.S. home values fell in the first quarter at the fastest rate since late 2008, real estate data firm Zillow said on Monday, suggesting that a bottom will not be seen until 2012 at the earliest.
Zillow said its home value index fell 3 percent in the first three months of the year from the previous quarter, and was down 8.2 percent year-over-year.
The number of homeowners under water-or, those who owe more on the mortgage than their house is currently worth-amounted to 28.4 percent of single-family homeowners, representing a peak since Zillow began calculating the data in 2009...
"Home value declines are currently equal to those we experienced during the darkest days of the housing recession. With accelerating declines during the first quarter, it is unreasonable to expect home values to return to stability by the end of 2011," Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said in a statement.
Almost all of the 132 markets covered by Zillow saw home value declines. Only Fort Myers in Florida, Champaign-Urbana in Illinois, and Honolulu, Hawaii, managed quarterly increases.
And $4 gas may not be the end of it. Historic spring floods could foreshadow potential summer hurricane impacts, not mention trigger a new round of spiking fuel costs on their own...
CNBC
Trading the Flood: Gas Futures Surge on Refinery Concerns
Gasoline futures surged more than 6 percent Monday on concerns about the potential impact of flooding on the largest gasoline pipeline in the U.S. as well as nearly a dozen Gulf Coast refiners.
Poll $4 Gas, Housing Double Dip
CNBC
May 9, 2011
Home Values See Biggest Drop Since 2008
U.S. home values fell in the first quarter at the fastest rate since late 2008, real estate data firm Zillow said on Monday, suggesting that a bottom will not be seen until 2012 at the earliest.
Zillow said its home value index fell 3 percent in the first three months of the year from the previous quarter, and was down 8.2 percent year-over-year.
The number of homeowners under water-or, those who owe more on the mortgage than their house is currently worth-amounted to 28.4 percent of single-family homeowners, representing a peak since Zillow began calculating the data in 2009...
"Home value declines are currently equal to those we experienced during the darkest days of the housing recession. With accelerating declines during the first quarter, it is unreasonable to expect home values to return to stability by the end of 2011," Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said in a statement.
Almost all of the 132 markets covered by Zillow saw home value declines. Only Fort Myers in Florida, Champaign-Urbana in Illinois, and Honolulu, Hawaii, managed quarterly increases.
And $4 gas may not be the end of it. Historic spring floods could foreshadow potential summer hurricane impacts, not mention trigger a new round of spiking fuel costs on their own...
CNBC
Trading the Flood: Gas Futures Surge on Refinery Concerns
Gasoline futures surged more than 6 percent Monday on concerns about the potential impact of flooding on the largest gasoline pipeline in the U.S. as well as nearly a dozen Gulf Coast refiners.
Poll $4 Gas, Housing Double Dip