American homes are worth $1.7 trillion less

^ That's a headline from CNN Money this morning which points to the loss in value of American houses since last year. From the article:

   American homes are expected to be worth $1.7 trillion less in 2010 than they were worth last year, according to a report released Thursday by real estate website Zillow.

   This year's drop in home values is 63% bigger than the $1 trillion dip in 2009, and brings the total value lost since the housing market's peak in 2006 to a whopping $9 trillion.

   Instead of leveling off from the $1.0 trillion loss in home values in 2009, the value destruction is accelerating again and the carnage will continue for a few more years. My timetable remains 2018 before any recovery in real estate is evident and prices begin appreciating again. Will real estate values eventually recover entirely to their highs in 2006-2007? Yes, I think so. The market has a short memory and when the good times are rolling again, old manias will reappear. It wouldn't be natural if booms and busts didn't cycle like the seasons.

Fannie and Freddie may need another $215 billion

   The black holes known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to suck money into their nether regions like a pair of ravenous vortices without end. From today's Reuters article:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fannie-and-Freddie-may-need-rb-2323937639.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
   NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae (OTC BB:FNMA.OB - News) and Freddie Mac (OTC BB:FMCC.OB - News) may need as much as $215 billion in additional capital from the Treasury through 2013 to offset losses and maintain a positive net worth, their federal regulator said on Thursday. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose programs fund the lion's share of all new home loans, are at the center of debate as Congress sets to overhaul a U.S. mortgage finance system that contributed to the worst housing crisis since the 1930s.

   The capital to support those two hulking disasters ultimately come from the American taxpayer. The wealth of the United States is created by working men and women who toil at their jobs and a good chunk of that will be going to fund Fannie and Freddie and keep them from imploding. I'm of the belief however that if that capital wasn't being used to keep F&F alive, it would be going to waste in another BIG program designed to destroy wealth and feed the wastrels. Remember Gravina Island Bridge aka "The Bridge to Nowhere" which was advocated by Representative Don Young and Senator Ted Stevens? That's the kind of waste and wastrel(s) I'm referring to.

   Continuing further into the Reuters article:
   "The cumulative capital needs of the two housing finance giants, which were seized by the government in late 2008, will likely fall between $221 billion and $363 billion through 2013, the Federal Housing Finance Agency estimated."

   Whenever I read a cost estimate preceded by the word, "likely," I automatically double the figure in my head so I'd pinpoint the total losses to be $750 billion when 2013 rolls around. Since I'm certain there's no housing recovery until 2018 or thereabouts, the total losses will probably reach $1.5 trillion when it's all said and done.