Housing Jumps the Shark

I love that term Jumping the Shark. For anyone who hasn't heard of it before, you can find the definition here. It seems that more and more often the MSM seems to be jumping on the falling house price bandwagon. Some articles do hedge their bets a little by quoting a bubble..if it exists....sort of like my old Italian Nona using her evil eye protection, but the B-word is out there loud and proud.
On my way to the Sonoma Market for my regular shopping this afternoon my husband pointed out this article in the Sacramento Bee.

Study Says Area Home Prices At Risk of Falling
If you've got one of those mutant loans you're in for a bumpy ride according to the study.

In all, eight of the 13 riskiest U.S. markets were in California; the rest were in the New York-to-Boston corridor. All have seen homes appreciate greatly in recent years, far exceeding typical gains of 4 percent to 6 percent yearly.

Officials at PMI, which provides mortgage insurance to buyers making less than 20 percent down payments, refused to speculate about how far prices could fall or make projections beyond two years.

In other words quit calling us. We can't help. What are we mind readers???
Of course Bernankes' raising on the interest rates isn't helping the plummet

Higher rates will continue to put downward pressure on home prices by reducing the number of buyers, said Jeannine Cataldi, senior economist at Global Insight, a business forecasting firm.

Cataldi said despite rate hikes and her firm's 53 percent overvaluation calculation for the Sacramento market, she sees a period of "minimum growth or no growth" in the region's home prices, instead of a crash.

Milner and Cataldi declined to speculate how long it will take for local incomes to catch up to housing prices and spur the market. But one Sacramento contractor believes the area could see home values stagnate for some time.

Over at MSNBC they're using the F-word. Flipper. No longer King orf the sea, or the housing market. It's Farewell and Goodbye
Now that article was written about 2 weeks ago before the rise in interest rates. The part I found particularly amusing was something that reminded me of the old saw.."Remember, they're not making anymore land!" Oh. Really. Then why is this happening?

With land prices falling in some areas, Hovnanian has walked away from about $5.6 million of deposits on land parcels it had options to buy, lopping 5 cents a share off the company’s second-quarter earnings.

Buyers in some cooling markets know they’re in the driver’s seat.

I wouldn't exactly say that the smart buyers are already in the drivers seat. More like they're kicking the tires. The Road Test and the Independent Mechanics Check-Up hasn't even begun yet. This baby's not leaving the lot for a good 18 months at least.