Regional Home Price Drop Possible

[dArKeR]

"There is an increasing risk of price declines in some of those areas, especially those in which job growth has been the most anemic," said David Berson, chief economist at mortgage finance provider Fannie Mae. Berson spoke on a conference call organized by the Homeownership Alliance about the outlook for the housing industry.

"Corporate profits are up 40 percent from two years ago, so companies are spending and jobs are being created," said David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

"We do have some concerns about some of the metro areas that have very high price gains and haven't seen job gains or continue to see job losses. But that's a very small number," Berson said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=568&e=2&u=/nm/20040830/bs_nm/economy_housing_dc_2

Is anything this guy said true?

[Romulus]

1. the DC area can only hope . . .

then we can afford the house with acreage for the wife's horse, within a one-hour commute from the city . . .

[napi21]

2. I don't know about the small number, but it's always the way the

housing market works. High demand makes higher prices. If people lose their homes or have no job and are barely scraping by using your retirement money to pay your bills, the available houses exceed the demand, so the prices drop.