The vicious cycle between unemployment and the crumbling housing market has become downright savage.
New home sales are at an all-time low, home resales are at the lowest in 12 years, home prices are falling at a record rate and more than 5 million Americans are receiving jobless benefits on a regular basis.
The more people who are out of work for an extended time, the higher the chance they will be forced to foreclose on their homes. That's especially true if the value of their largest investment, their home, has dropped below what they have borrowed to live in it.
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And the rising pain has spread to the banks that make the loans. The nation's banks lost $26.2 billion in the last three months of 2008, the first quarterly deficit in 18 years, as the housing and credit crises escalated.
More/Source: http://snipurl.com/cq5ap [www_msnbc_msn_com]
U.S. banks post first quarterly loss in 18 years
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