Wow, the numbers were just released on home prices in California. In July 2007, the median home price in Cali was $587,000. In July 2008? $350,000.
Oh my. That is a 40% drop year over year, and the equivalent of $4,500 lossed per week! Remember, this is the median home price dropping. If you owned a more expensive home the losses are unimaginable. Fortunately, most of those people tapped their entire equity on their home to go on vacations, buy big screens, and new cars. They can now just hand their keys over to the bank and go rent a home for a fraction of what the mortgage is. The banks will take all the losses, and those losses will be spread out all across the country to every tax payer who is paying for the bank bail outs.
So next time someone asks you if you've done anything for someone lately, tell them you personally financed the lifestyle of 80% of California the last few years. Remember, they get to keep the tvs and the cars. The only people you should feel bad for are the ones who bought homes they could afford with down payments and did not tap into their equity.
The same thing is coming in credit cards. It's going to be very unfortunate when the American public finally understands what the government is doing to their money. Anyone holding dollar denominated assets is going to be brutally crushed.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/08/fire-sale-calif.html
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