U.S. Housing Market Is Cursed by Brain Freeze by John Wasik
The Bear on Jul 12 2009 at 7:30 am | Filed under: Economy
If you are buying or selling a home in a market glutted with distressed properties, it’s time to change your attitude. Don’t be misled by pundits saying the bottom may be visible in this stultifying decline. The real-estate recession will continue unless a massive brain freeze thaws. Buyers are afraid of purchasing a home at the wrong price while millions of sellers are locked into unrealistic listing prices. Some good news after almost three years of deterioration is welcome, of course. In the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 major U.S. cities, values fell 18 percent in April. That pace was slower than forecast. That’s cold comfort as the collective psychology of the U.S. home market has been short-circuited for some time. We are largely hostage to the way our mind works. According to prospect theory, pioneered by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, the idea of losing money is a much more powerful motivator than a gain.
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