Could this happen again?

Posted by: Dean Foust on June 30, 2007

Fascinating newsreel piece from the 1930s about the housing downturn and subsequent recovery. I like the same scene: Without giving away the punchline, compare the size of the downpayment required to the purchase price for the home. And compare it to today’s lending standards.

Reader Comments

Jim D

July 2, 2007 10:45 AM

"For less than they now spend for rent".

Never mind 20% down - the rent/price ratio, check that out.

Where I live (Silicon Valley), monthly payments are almost twice rent. How far do you think prices will fall, given that?

Nick

July 2, 2007 11:46 AM

And History always repeats itself...

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About

BusinessWeek editors Chris Palmeri, Prashant Gopal and Peter Coy chronicle the highs and lows of the housing and mortgage markets on their Hot Property blog. In print and online, the Hot Property team first wrote about the potential downside of lenders pushing riskier, "option ARM" mortgages and the rise in mortgage fraud back in 2005—well ahead of many other media outlets. In 2008, Hot Property bloggers finished #1 in a ranking of the world's top 100 "most powerful property people" by the British real estate website Global edge. Hot Property was named among the 25 most influential real estate blogs of 2007 by Inman News.

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