“Rising mortgage rates are exacerbating affordability issues that have been driving people out of expensive coastal metros for the past few years,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.

That's what's needed to give residential construction a second wind.Since the recession ended, "it's been a rich man's housing recovery," says Carl Riccadonna, chief U.S. economist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

or economists, or BPers claiming to have the crystal ball, have acknowledged their failure to accurately predict the future or, in the cases of irresponsible journalists and economists, lost their jobs.But on the flip side a lot of people WERE pressured into an otherwise ill-advised real estate purchase or (in retrospect) poorly timed refinance.Funny how that works, innit? 

Economists remind me of Meteorologists.

Then I got my RE license in Aug 2006...economists say that the bubble burst in July 2006 in the Northern VA area...I was out of the game before I even got started!!!

I mean all they have to do is say "Hey do you want lower rent"  Sounds so simple, but it's really devastating to the economy and communities. http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/...

Of course, there are no guarantees that mortgage rates will come down, but most economists agree that post Fed rate hikes - the economy slows, inflation comes down - and mortgage rates historically come down as well.

Not one economist predicted the crash of 2008.Plan for the worst scenario and take advantage of any opportunity that comes along the way.Buy below value, rehab to increase value and hold in the current market.Praveen

It rose as a result of the Great Recession, after the economy started growing again but when when it still felt to everyone who was not a professional economist that we were in a recession.The Great Recession involved a massive loss of jobs, and that caused vacancies to spike, as always happens during a recession.  

Economists estimate we are still some 5 million housing units behind the demand, even after the beginnings of construction recovery.It's going to be a tough time for move-ups and first-timers for a good while yet.The shiny side of that coin is that this means the demand for rehabs and fix-and-flips of short sales, REOs and other distressed properties continues to be strong in many areas.The education to which I'm connected is in the process of putting together a raw land development class.