US Home Price Decline Spreads To Stable Markets

From The New York Times article, "Housing Crash Is Hitting Cities Thought to Be Stable" by David Streitfeld:

The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune — economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained.

In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las Vegas. Minneapolis dropped more than Miami, and Atlanta fared worse than Phoenix.***The fact that even a fairly prosperous area like Seattle was ensnared in the downturn shows just how much of a national phenomenon the crash has been. The slump began when the low-quality loans that drove the latter stage of the boom began to go bad, but the resulting recession greatly enlarged the crisis. Many people could not get a mortgage, and others simply gave up the hunt.

Now, though the overall economy seems to be mending, housing remains stubbornly weak.

Read the complete article here.

US Treasury Report On Housing Market Reform

The complete US Treasury report, "Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market" on fixing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the US housing market is available from Treasury here, on Scribd here and embedded below. The accompanying press release and summary is available here.
Reforming America's Housing Finance Market