Summary
Economists said the current housing slump has already surpassed the 1990 downturn and will likely rival, if not surpass, the prolonged housing decline in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period when the Federal Reserve was pushing interest rates to the highest levels since the Civil War in a successful effort to halt a decade-long bout of high inflation.
"I think this housing downturn will be unprecedented in terms of its breadth across the country and in its severity," [Mark Zandi] said.Economists said the weakness showed the housing correction was getting worse since the turmoil in financial markets hit in August. Those problems, which have resulted in billions of dollars of losses at financial institutions, reflected rising defaults for subprime mortgages -- loans offered to borrowers with weak credit histories.See the full content of this document
Extract
U.S. Housing Downturn Raises Recession Alarm
By Martin Crutsinger
WASHINGTON -- The steep slump in U.S. housing intensified at the end of last year, pushing home construction down by the biggest amount in nearly th...See the full content of this document
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