Credit Card debt that is older than three years should have all interest charges waived for those who are trying to pay down their debt. This would almost instantly begin to cure many economic ills.

http://www.daily-protest.com

Where you think this settles should have a lot to do with your outlook for inflation. If we wind up with high inflation then current prices might be real deal. We could see this chart rebound a lot.

Of course if we wind up with prolonged, widespread deflation, then throw in the towel now.

Agree totally that people are bombarded with factoids that are at best meaningless and at worst cause poor decision making

Government has taken good steps but they arent helping.
http://www.housingnewslive.com/is-the-housing-market-recovering.php

I am sure that the market will still slide down…What do you guys think?

Without being adjusted for inflation, the data are meaningless.

The only thing on earth that is even more meaningless is the news readers that say “the Dow right now is at 8,675,” or whatever. For that to mean anything, one has to remember what the close was yesterday, mentally subtract the latest reading from yesterday’s close, and then mentally divide the current reading by the change from yesterday’s close.

This is a perfect example of all the factoids we are subjected to every day– a very precise number with no meaning. It would be less precise but more meaningful to say something like “The Dow is down (or up) by ABOUT x percent. Stress the word About.

There is also the questions of quantity and quality. When I was a kid 60 years ago, my father was a lawyer for AT&T, then a monopoly. He and his Friends did not think of themselves as lower-class. (Or “middle class,” as Lou Dobbs calls those on the lower 20% of the income scale.)

Everyone’s e house was about 25% to 50% the size of the McMansions they build today. There was only one full bathroom for three bedrooms. No family had more than one car (although it usually was a Cadillac or at least a large Buick.)

Of course, not one of the wives worked. They didn’t have to because no one had told them that every family has to have one car for each person, etc. and a large separate bedroom and bath for each child. So that (assuming the wife was a decent person), unlike today, there was always someone around to take care of sick kids, make hot cocoa in the winter, arrange the flowers, get the cocktails ready for the husband’s arrival on the commuter train from the city, etc.

If you live in New York City, some day go and visit Theodore Roosevelt’s childhood home, which is a national park. Notice that he shared a small bedroom with a sibling. Even the upper classes thought that was perfectly acceptable.

My point being that houses today are much larger than they were in earlier Adan happier times. I widener what the chart would show about pricers adjusted for inflation AND for changes in square feet and amenities.

Agreed with those above who state that this is going back to mid-1990s. That was the most recent trough. In early 90s I owned a nice 3 bdrm condo in San Diego with a pool in the complex. At the time, they would sit for months on the market at $120k. The worst mistake I ever made was to sell in 1998 when it finally sold for what I had paid for it in 1991- $145k. By 2004 they were up over 400k. Now they are back in the high 200k range.

I wasn’t trying to make money on the house, I bought it to live in it and will keep it indefinitely, my payment is less than a thousand dollars a month so if I move I’ll just rent it out.

Yes, the “loss” is all on paper, but it’s still depressing.