Greenspan: Housing is 'nowhere near the bottom'

I can't quite figure out whether Alan Greenspan is still big news. He's still capable of headlines, though: "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. is 'nowhere near the bottom' of the housing slump and is 'right on the brink" of a recession.'

More, from CNBC.com: "... he also warned that 'Fannie and Freddie are a major accident waiting to happen.'

His comments came in an interview today with CNBC. I'll look for more quotes on housing from the interview and add them to this post.

-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo: AFP / Getty Images

Comments

[sean]

HE IS RIGHT!

We are no where near a bottom in this mess. It will be another year or two of price declines before the market stabilizes.

I have said it for a while, NOW is not the time to buy a home. Don't listen to the realtors (ie, liars). If you buy now, you are greatly overpaying.

[toby]

I think all of you are missing the mark here.

Low interest rates was not the culprit of the Housing Bubble. It was the almost universal shady lending practices.

Giving a McDonalds employee a 500,000 dollar mortgage, with no Docs, no money down, that's what caused this bubble.

From 2002 to 2007 all you needed was a heart beat to get a home loan...and even that was "workable".

So yeah, I know it feels better to blame Greenspan for the bubble, but alas, it was the Lenders that caused this mess.

[BobbyD]

Does anyone remember this Greenspan speech from 2004?

"American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage. To the degree that households are driven by fears of payment shocks but are willing to manage their own interest rate risks, the traditional fixed-rate mortgage may be an expensive method of financing a home. "