Map of Misery

America may well be only halfway through the house-price bust:

SOUNDING more like a cartographer than a central banker, Ben Bernanke this week showed off the Federal Reserve's latest gizmo for tracking America's property bust: a series of maps that colour-code price declines, foreclosures and other gauges of housing distress for every county in the country. The Fed chairman's goal was to show graphically that falling prices meant more foreclosures, and he went on to urge lenders to write down the principal on troubled loans where the house is worth less than the value of the mortgage. But the jazzy design of his maps—where hotter colours imply more trouble—also makes a starker point. The pain of America's housing bust varies enormously by region. Hardest hit have been the “bubble states”—California, Nevada and Florida, as well as parts of the industrial Midwest. The biggest uncertainty hanging over the economy is how red will things get.

Follow the link for more.

I lived in Florida as the housing market started getting incredibly "hot". I briefly considered buying a house before deciding to come back to school. I ultimately decided to continue being an apartment dweller and am very glad I did.

As I've mentioned numerous times before, renting has it's perks!