Where is the boom that inevitably follows a deep bust, such as we experienced in 2008 and 2009?

But there is no mystery. What other result would you expect from the financial ruin of the once-great American middle class?

via  News from Yahoo! Finance.

The bailout, by the numbers, clearly did work. Not only did it forestall a worldwide financial meltdown, but a Fortune analysis shows that U.S. taxpayers are also coming out ahead on it — by at least $40 billion, and possibly by as much as $100 billion eventually. This is our count for the entire bailout, not just the 3 percent represented by the massively unpopular Troubled Assets Relief Program. Yes, that’s right — TARP is only 3 percent of the bailout, even though it gets 97 percent of the attention.

via - The Washington Post.

Realtors are hoping an uptick in home prices reported on Tuesday is the beginning of a turnaround, but industry experts say it’s too soon to tell if the improvement is anything other than a seasonal blip.

via NPR.

Farmers, who bet on the weather each growing season, have emerged as the shrewdest gamblers in the housing industry.

via RISMedia.

Hindsight being what it is, then, why should it have surprised anyone that the housing market — and its rapidly inflating bubble — ultimately faltered? Given that prices so rapidly outpaced income, shouldn’t it have been obvious the center wouldn’t hold?

Apparently not.

“Everybody got caught up in the excitement,” said Paul Semanek, president of the Greater Capital Association of Realtors, a trade group.

via Times Union.

Here are some charts showing nominal and real (CPI inflation-adjusted) housing declines in 20 Case-Shiller metro areas. Charts are grouped by 10 least expensive and 10 most expensive areas. Additional tables show housing declines from the peak. An explanation follows the charts.

via Mish’s Global Economic Trend

Even cities that weathered the housing market crash with relatively little damage are suffering now.

Severe price declines have spread to Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and Cleveland, which had mostly withstood the bust in housing since 2006.

via News and Talk of Sonoma County.

An index of home prices in the nation’s largest American cities plumbed new depths in March, pushing past a low set during the worst of the Great Recession.

via – latimes.com.

Disenchantment with real estate is bound to swell further on Tuesday when the most widely watched housing index is all but guaranteed to show prices of existing homes sank in March below the lows reached two years ago

via NYTimes.com.

“The housing market is dropping . . . and about to go to a new low,” he tells CNBC. “I think we’re looking at some type of echo in the credit crisis coming up here. That’s what I’m afraid of.”

via moneynews.