Housing prices to free fall in 2008 - Merrill
January 24th, 2008 Posted in Market ConditionsAccording to a Merrill Lynch report, home prices will drop 15 percent this year, and declines will continue in 2009.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The worst housing financial crisis in decades is only going to get worse, a Merrill Lynch report said Wednesday.
The investment bank forecasted a 15 percent drop in housing prices in 2008 and a further 10 percent drop in 2009, with even more depreciation likely in 2010.
By contrast, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) expects housing prices to remain flat in 2008. NAR did cut its home price estimate for the current quarter, however, to a 5.3 percent year-over-year decline, which represents the steepest drop in that price measure on record. But NAR sees an uptick in home prices in the last two quarters of 2008.
“Merrill Lynch’s figures are way too pessimistic, and they are unprecedented,” Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors chief economist told CNNMoney.com. “There is so much variation in local housing markets, and we see stable price conditions for 2008.”
Subscribe in a reader