Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression

I know that I sound like a broken record, but when is somebody - indeed ANYBODY - in Washington going to wake up and try to stem the continued free fall of the housing market? I don't care if its a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or member of some other group that wakes up to the ongoing disaster so long as somebody wakes up and puts in place policy and regulatory reforms that stop the constant downward spiral. Why am I so exercised? Because a new report discloses that nationwide the crash and burning of the housing market is now worse than what happened during the Great Depression. Yet Congress and the White House continue to do nothing of any substance. Here are highlights from CNBC:
*
It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression. Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.
*
"The sharp fall in house prices in the first quarter provided further confirmation that this housing crash has been larger and faster than the one during the Great Depression," Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, wrote in research for clients.
*
More than four in every five mortgages now require a down payment of 20 percent, and credit history standards have tightened. At the same time, foreclosures continue at a brisk pace, pushing more supply onto the market and pressuring prices downward. Then there is the issue of underwater homeowners—those who owe more than their house is worth—representing another 23 percent of homeowners who cannot leave or are in danger of mortgage default.
*
Indeed, the foreclosure problem is unlikely to get any better with 4.5 million households either three payments late or in foreclosure proceedings. The historical average is 1 million, according to Dales' research.