Lowell Deeds

Back in 2003 when the volume of refinancing and the resultant rise in home values departed reality like a rocket leaving the earth’s atmosphere, I started expressing my concerns about the consequences of the housing boom here on this blog. A number of people (many of whom were making a lot of money off of the boom) started referring to me as “the prophet of doom.” In the coming weeks, I plan to compile those older posts because I’m afraid they will prove I was more of a prophet of reality. Yesterday’s drastic decline in the stock market is the first tangible evidence we’ve seen that the current collapse of the housing boom will cause collateral damage to the rest of the economy. The situation is volatile and unpredictable in the short term. The market could bounce up and down like a yo-yo, or yesterday could just be a preview of more intense declines just over the horizon.