Don't Doubt Me

Bill quoted the New York Times on 24OCT07:

"The loss in total real estate wealth is expected to range from $2 trillion to $4 trillion, depending on how far home prices fall, according to several economists."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/business/25mortgage.html?ei=5090&en=f636df0dc020edd9&ex=1350964800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

And noted:

I think it may be worse than the ‘several economists’ estimate. At the peak, there was around $9 trillion in home equity and $10 trillion in mortgages. Entry level homes are now starting to move in a place I know at a ~35% discount relative to the peak. Most of that 35% comes out of home equity, not mortgage debt.

Extrapolating the 35% data point, around 70% of American home equity has gone away. That’s $7 trillion, not 2 to 4.

…

And now this report from the Bank of America today.

"The meltdown in the US subprime real-estate market has led to a global loss of 7.7 trillion dollars in stock-market value since October, a report by Bank of America showed Thursday."

For the record, this thing is not over.