Our sales for January and February 2008 are definitely lower than 2007! But I am getting a lot more calls, which is better than last year. And I'm renting a lot of condo units in a condo-conversion project I have listed.

Lisa Hill (Daytona Beach REALTOR®) I understand that sales may be off, but to have increased activity this early in hte market is very positive!

For Atlanta, certainly, I agree that the Federal Reserve does seem to be underestimating the extent of the issues, though they hint at deeper problems by acknowledging that even despite all the issues, prices have only fallen slightly.  I think the more accurate indicator of how things are on the ground in Atlanta will be the monthly MLS numbers for February which should be out any day now - I'll be anxious to hear your thoughts on those, Jim.

Laz Thank you for commenting.  As far as the Fed's numbers...if you have the facts they do not have to hint.  That is damage control and PR.   The facts are more than sobering.  The statistics will not be released until 3/20/2008...however I am running my own statistics and sales are lagging substantially.  1,468 Single family homes sold in February in the entire metro Atlanta area as compared to February 2007 where we had 4,487 closed single family homes sold in all of Metro Atlanta.  Also in January Foreclosure filings for Georgia have gone through the roof with over 10,670 new filings.  This is very disturbing. Foreclosures are exceeding sales 4 to one at January's rate of 2401 homes sold in all of Metro Atlanta.

I'm sorry, but every time I read a cheerleader comment in the newspaper I want to throw up.  We are not doing people a service by telling them that "it will all be better tomorrow!"  Seriously, we are in DEEEEEEEP doo doo, and I wish there was something that could be done, but banks and investors got way to loose, there has to be a correction.  It's going to hurt.

Bond investors stopped buying securitized conforming ARM bond pools today...did you see what happened to pricing?  The spread between the 10yr and the 30 yr MBS is wider than it has been since 1986...does anybody remember the state of the economy from 1976 to 1986?  Sorry, but the piper has to be paid.

Rich Sweum  I am wondering what the folks in Washington are cooking up right now?  I used to work in a business research library in NY, and find it is easy to research fundamentals.  No one on CNBC, the news are looking at the basics.  No one is calling the spokes persons on the carpet for the drivel they are spewing.   All this to the tune of "Don't Rock the boat baby!"

Hi Jim, when Uncle Ben came on board I thought, "Finally, an economics guy that will not cow-tow to the Financial sector."  It took a short time for him to convert to a pawn of the financial "families."  Someone took him on a walk and explained "How things work in this town."  Ever since, he has been a knee-jerk reactionary.

Greenspan created much of the mess we are in, he left rates too low, for too long.  Unsound lending practices were birthed and hypertrophied in this environment and now we have a mess on our hands.

I can't believe that Bloomberg, et al, still spew headlines "Some data today confirms that we MIGHT be in a recession."  What in the heck are they looking at, there is no "might be"...we are in a recession and it is going to be a long one.  The fact that Amazon or any individual stock might have a good day is NO reason to think that we aren't in a recession. 

Rich Sweum  I'll cut Ben the benefit of the doubt.  I think Ben inherited a total mess with no options left.  Greenspan left just before the shi- hit the fan by the ton loads!  I think Greenspan was an active participant in the mayhem we are now in, the only thing is he left while he still had the appearances of looking good in the public's eye!  Greenspan was at the helm when Clinton had the Glass-Steagall Act  repealed in 1999.  We then started the process of building worthless and bad loans into securities and selling them around the globe as worthless bonds made in the USA!

That strawberry and peanut butter in your Kool-aid will do it every time!

Find a Notary Public | needAnotary  I know!  That is why I do nto drink it!  LOL!

Jim,

I agree with you totally.  In 1989 the same investments were called junk bonds and Michael Milken spent time in jail for the same behavior on commercial properties.  I'm confused as to why it would not be a greater crime when SFR's are involved; especially a commercial is consider a sophisticated investor where as a homeowner is not.

Greenspan I’m sure has some blame to share. But, this character people refer to as president and the last guy that held that office both allowed the mortgage industry and credit card companies to run rampart and create much distress for Americans trying to scrape out a reasonable living.

Find a Notary Public | needAnotary  Well as a society we are pre-occupied with Ophra, Britanny Spears, OJ, and American Idol than with the bank that we save in going under, great depressions etc.   I've done exhaustive research about the Glass-Steagall Act  and it was the beginning of this entire cycle...they just got greedier and greedier!  Now we will pay for it for a very long time to come!

Northern Rock in England failed not from British real estate, it was American CMO's and securitized worthless mortgages held by persons that could never afford to repay or even make one mortgage payment!  The bank was just taken over by the British Government last week!  We need to prepare for bank failures here also! 

I hope that real estate agents, brokers, mortage companies, appraisers that were in on  the scam are thrown into jail for 40 years!  It is absolutley criminal! No one can say they did not see this coming.  I wrote about this in 2004, and spoke publically about the events that are now unfolding.  I never thought it was going to be this bad, and it is just starting!