The papers have been woefully slow at reporting and are lagging indicators of what's really happening out on the street. While it is true we are now just starting to see front page stories in the publications like the WSJ and NYT, they are usually only about the sagging sales and the soaring inventories--and most always contain a "feel good" quote from a hired gun at the NAR stating "Now is the best time to buy....it's a buyer's market!" (Which has been said every month on cue for the past year). Other stories about the bust have been tucked away in the Personal Finance, Marketplace or Real Estate sections.
This thing has just only begun to unwind. Stories are starting to come to light about shoddy construction of houses and condos thrown up during the boom. Projects being cancelled, developers filing for bankruptcy, layoffs, fraud and collusion--still not front page news.
H&R Block just announced it will take a charge of $61.3 million to reflect an increase in the number of its subprime mortgage customers falling behind on their loan payments. If this doesn't make a headline in the WSJ's Saturday edition, we're still not at the starting point just yet.
