Reply #35: The risks from falling home prices [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BAAE96FE3%2D9D6B%2D4FC2%2D9B0E%2D70D878DC2486%7D&siteid=mktw

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- When I interviewed for the job that first brought me to New England in 1994, I met with seven different executives.

Four of them were underwater on their mortgage, meaning that if they had to sell their home in the Boston suburbs, they would have to bring money to the table to pay off their lender because the home had declined in value.

They spent more time talking to me about how nervous the situation was making them, and wondering aloud what might happen next, than they did asking me about my thoughts and feelings for what became my job.

Just over a decade later, in most regions of the country, the idea of people lying awake at night worried about home values seems like ancient history, the stuff of legend.

But that may be about to change.

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