Too Little, Too Late

Boston’s Real Estate Cafe is having a coffee meetup to talk about projected ten percent decline in the price of single-family homes in the next year. I don’t know what to say except “woohoo?” Loss of population, price declines, and the MBTA aside, housing in these parts is still too scarce, too expensive, and too far from public transit. For as long as I’ve been paying attention, the problems have been obvious and the solutions have been simple, if unpopular (Dense mixed-income housing! In your colonial town!)

Meanwhile, The Times tells me that Bernanke is “clamping down on exotic and subprime mortgages,” something that’s been obviously necessary for at least four years. Keep this up, boys, and you just might get the barn door closed by the time the horse gets bored of romping around the farmyard and decides to come back out of the rain.