www.cbsnews.com . . . - (CBS) In its "Where America Stands" series, CBS News is looking at a broad spectrum of issues facing this country in the new decade.

CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy report the American Dream is now a nightmare for many of the 75 million Americans who own a home.

The housing report card is ugly. In the past two years, the housing market has lost an estimated $4.9 trillion dollars, as 59 million homes have declined in value.

Nearly 1 in 4 homeowners -- 10.7 million households nationwide -- are underwater on their mortgages. They owe more than their home is now worth.The housing market is so bad in California, that a bank demolished 16 nearly completed homes - because it was cheaper to knock them down, than to finish them.

Home building across the country is almost non-existent. In 2005, 2 million housing units were built in this country. Last year, that number dropped to nearly a quarter of that.

That's left former boom towns like Las Vegas with a lot of roads to nowhere, as builders ran out of money and buyers for the homes they once planned to build here.

Then, there's foreclosure. Nationwide, nearly 6 million households have been taken back by the bank in just the past three years - pushing down home values, and leaving some neighborhoods looking like warzones.
The Problem

People are still losing their homes, preventing a housing market recovery.

"Disaster is not too strong a word and crisis is not too strong a word," said Michelle Johnson of Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

All of those risky loans that banks gave to homeowners are still wreaking havoc.

Jessica and Aaron Jenkins got in way over their heads when they bought their 5-bedroom dream home in Corona, California for over $700,000. They paid $2,800 dollars a month on their interest-only loan -- never touching the principal.

"It's cheaper than a 30-year fixed," Aaron said. "We can afford it so that's why we did it."

But this year, their loan would reset, adding $1,100 dollars to their monthly payment. In the next two years, nearly 361,000 loans will reset nationwide - increasing mortgage payments by an average of $1,000 per month.

That's why a record 3 million more foreclosures are expected in 2010.

Aux Etats-Unis, les "walk away" laissent leur maison... et leur dette aux banquiers

Si la stratégie du walk away se répand, elle ne peut qu'amplifier la chute des prix et le nombre de propriétaires under water. Selon la Mortgage Bankers Association, 4,38 % des emprunteurs américains étaient, au troisième trimestre 2009, en procédure de saisie et 9,9 % avaient des retards de paiement, soit un total de 15 % d'emprunteurs en difficultés.

www.lemonde.fr . . .

Housing Crash Continues
It's Still A Terrible Time To Buy
Why?

patrick.net . . .

Lord_Buckhouse wrote:

This is what happens when you let liberals and Democrats run the show. They created the housing crisis with their easy credit and relaxed standards for minorities and low income folks. Lots of bad loans were forced on banks by a Democrat agenda. From foreign policy to economic policy liberals should NEVER be any policy making power.

If the US states would lower their often confiscatory property taxes on houses and ground, many people could keep their homes.