The struggling housing market is expected to see home values fall even further in the coming months, causing a triple dip. According to Fiserv, a financial analytics company, home values will likely fall another 3.6 percent by June 2012.
Home Values to Drop to 35 Percent Below the Peak in 2006
Fiserv revealed on Monday that the besieged housing market is still on a downward spiral as home values continue to fall. With prices expected to drop until at least the summer of next year, they are likely to reach a new low of 35 percent below the peak reached in early 2006.
It was just May of this year that Americans faced a double dip in the U.S. housing market. At that point, home values had fallen to 33 percent below the peak five years prior. They had also dropped below the previous low in March 2009 of 31 percent during the recession and shortly after the housing market crash.
Fiserv says several factors are contributing to the expected triple dip. Primarily, the increase in foreclosure activity that is leaving thousands of homes empty, sustained high unemployment and consumers’ fear of taking on a major purchase like a mortgage loan won’t allow home values to rise.
Housing Market to Climb Modestly after Dip
The analytics company expects the housing market to begin making a comeback after the third price dip in mid-2012, but the recovery is predicted to be modest at best. After the near 4 percent drop through June 2012, national prices are expected to climb about 2.4 percent through June 2013.
Fiserv says some individual metro areas will fair better than the country as a whole with 31 of the 385 markets predicted to pile up double-digit gains and 71 expected to post increases of 5 percent or better by 2013.
Some say now is the time to purchase the vacation or retirement homes where prices have fallen far below their peak because they are expected to see the sharpest increases when the market begins to recover.
As we have just heard another program to help homeowners to retain their houses, our economy continues to slip further into a financial hole. As home values continue to decline or forecasted, the United States economy suffers. Job improvement is the only course to help save this nation if not the world. Raising taxes on the ones that help to create jobs will not do so but wise fiscal policy will help to stop the blood flow. We need true leadership from the top to make people believe not only in themselves but this country.