Falling Prices Are "Tip of Iceberg of Housing Market Woes"

Asha Bangalore, Senior Vice President and Economist for Northern Trust Corporation, is a bit to focused on aggregate demand in her overall economic analysis for my taste, but her recent daily commentary about the housing market is worthy of attention. She offers insights on the housing market that reinforces what I said earlier this week. In fact Bangalore says lower house prices are merely the "tip of the iceberg" for the problems facing the housing market. She reports that in the second quarter of this year 11 million home mortgages were "under water,"--meaning owners owed more on their house than the house is presently worth. She says that, due to prolonged unemployment, an increase in underwater mortgages is likely in the near future.