Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Beranke and his department released white papers related to the US Housing Market with respect to the Current Conditions and Future Policy Considerations. In the Opening Statement Mr. Bernanke stated " The ongoing problems in the U.S. housing market continue to impede the economic recovery. House prices have fallen an average of about 33% from their 2006 peak, resulting in about $7 trillion in household wealth losses and an associated racheting down of aggregate consumption." Declines of this magnitude have not been realized since the Great Depression. Compound that with another tough statistic regarding the ratio of home equity to disposable income. Since 2007 the ratio of home equity to disposable personal income has declined 55%. This is the greatest decline since the statistc was developed in the 1950's.
Click here to view the opening statements from the Federal Reserve!!!
The ideas to address the housing market are the following: 1)Create more jobs - Free Enterprise created by our Founding Fathers , 2) Due to a growing need for rental units in the U.S. the foreclosed homes can be converted into Rental Units. 2) Land Banks - this is a method used when low value properties that have been foreclosed on simply will not sell for any profit if presented on the open market. Cleveland and Detroit have these types of situations to name a few. 3) Increasing Loan Modifications, 4) Improving accountability with Mortgage Companies
