So, did anyone really see the housing collapse coming?
I’ve covered residential real estate news for newspapers and magazines for more than a decade now. During the big housing boom of 2001 through 2006, I interviewed several people who were worried that housing prices were rising too high too quickly.
But whenever I interviewed someone who worked in the home-selling business, whether it be a real estate agent, someone with the National Association of Realtors, a mortgage loan officer or a title insurer and asked them about the possibility of housing prices one day crashing, they always told me the same thing: There is no way that could happen.
Turns out, those industry pros weren’t exactly correct. The housing market has collapsed. Housing prices have fallen. Owners are struggling to sell their homes, even at deeply discounted prices. And a growing number of homeowners have either lost their homes to foreclosure or are facing the threat of this.
Industry experts contended that there was no such thing as a national real estate market. They said that even if housing prices in one state started dipping, there was no reason that they’d then dip in the next state over.
Again, the industry experts were wrong.
This should teach all of us a lesson: Just because someone in the real estate business tells you things aren’t so bad, or that things should turn around soon, doesn’t mean you should start looking for housing prices to suddenly rise in your neighborhood. Agents, mortgage loan officers and bankers haven’t exactly displayed a good track record when it comes to predicting which way the housing market will go.
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