From Reuters (hat tip reader Saboor):
Citigroup chairman Win Bischoff has warned that house prices in Britain and the United States are likely to keep falling for another two years.
The chairman of one of the world’s most powerful banks told the BBC in an interview that he expects it will take two years for the markets to stabilise.
He also said he expected the credit crunch could continue through until 2009.
Bischoff is an optimist
A consensus seems to be forming around a timetable that calls for falling home prices for the next one to two years. Beware. The conventional wisdom is usually wtong in these situations or trying to talk up a book. When Wall Street tells you it’s a continuing disaster, it may well mean that we want to snap up the bargains before you figure out what’s going on.
Not sure that’s the case here but keep in mind the ulterior motives when you read pieces like this.
Wall street had the housing bubble wrong for four years and they have lost $5 trillion, thus the obvious thing to do, is to save your pennies and ignore everything these crooks attempt to manipulate — then watch your cash like a hawk!!! You can trust them to be crooked every time and God is my witness on that fact!
Hmmm! So if Citibank truly believes this and if they are still writing mortgages, are they getting 50% down payments now to cover their rears if this prediction proves to be right? If not, then their investors should be even more worried than they already are.
In any case, I am sure that predictions like this by the CHAIRMAN of Citibank sure makes people buying new homes relaxed and comfortable (not)!
If he said housing would decline for the next 10 to 15 years would everybody feel better?
Just two more years? Haha… that’s a good one!