Property: US housing turning dreams to nightmares

Newsweek, having used data from Moody's Economy.Com, says that 40% of properties on sale in California right now are forced sales. And more properties are being sold than last year albeit at massively deflated prices.

As autumn leaves fall in New England, the prospects are that housing prices, already wobbly, will follow them down despite the traditional strength and stability of that region as lending becomes more difficult to find. Connecticut, the research says, is suffering because total sales have fallen but the number of foreclosures has risen and Massachusetts has seen a substantial rise - a rare factor in the USA's old money belt.

And in the so-called "rust belt" - cities where manufacturing plant lies idle and dilapidated, further job losses and poor economic prospects have led to an increase in defaults, the paper says.

What Newsweek does not do is bite the hands that feed it. It does not say that estate agents irresponsibly pushed up prices, and that valuers supported them; it does not say that loan brokers arranged inapropriate loans and lenders happily grabbed them; it does not say that lenders and those that backed the funds ignored the obvious signs of an overheated market despite an underlying struggling economy; and it does not say that ratings companies who gave funds AAA ratings based on who was behind them rather than the quality of the assets helped create an illusion of health were there was sickness.