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Housing Outlook 2012

December 27, 2011 by · Comments Off on Housing Outlook 2012 

Housing Outlook 2012Housing Outlook 2012, It’s hard to see 2012 being drastically different from 2011. Why? ‘Cause 2011 was very little different from 2010. We’ve been battling the after-effects of the global credit bubble since mid-2007 and that process is a long way from being resolved.

The US housing market has yet to bottom as government programs prolong the agony rather than flush the excesses from the system and allow the heeling process to unfold.

Europe continues to try and patch the leaky balloon that its the sovereign debt crisis but every time they think they have a fix in place, another gap opens elsewhere.

I see a continuation of a risk-averse market into 2012 until such time that the major market overhangs are dealt with in a straight-forward fashion. That will not happen in the US in 2012, an election year.

It could happen in Europe, but things will have to get much worse before they get better. A near-death experience for the euro project will be the catalyst for a full fiscal union complete with transfers from rich states to poor. I doubt very much we will get there in the next year.

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