Since June I’ve been saying that the COVID economic crisis is going to make 2008 look like a pleasant walk through a park on a sunny day. Sadly more and more indicators are pointing to that being the case.
In 2005-2008 smart folks could see that housing prices were unsustainable and either sold, like many of my buddies did, or at least stopped buying.
In 2020 the US and world economies were flying high. Then in a matter of a couple of weeks, everything came to a sketching stop. This was unpredictable and no one was prepared. This was compounded by the dysfunction of our federal government.
Even without eviction moratoriums, rental housing providers will fail. With the government pushing this entirely onto the back of the property owners I see a future of much higher rents and municipalities struggling to survive right alongside the property owners.
Forbes has a great article outlining the precarious conditions facing the housing market.
Mortgage delinquency rates are at a 20-year high worse than the 2008 high if that tells you anything (and it should), and there are predictions that at least two million mortgages will soon go into default. And that is just the tip of the iceberg, as an estimated six million folks missed their mortgage or rent payment in September. The economic news isn’t too hot either, as the so-called “third wave” of coronavirus cases that is beginning to his the U.S. is already proving to be the worst yet.
