It’s Too Early to Talk About a Soft Landing

A consistent talking point of Realtors and homebuilders and speculators is that that the housing market is not crashing. Instead, the housing market is headed for a “soft landing” or that is has already landed, “softly.” Calling the recent miniscule decreases or flattening of housing prices evidence of a soft landing is extremely premature considering the gains of the past four or five years. We are barely three or six months away from the all time highs of last year and the real estate industry wants to declare victory as if their assertions that “real estate never goes down” has already been proven true.

-Lereah said in a prepared statement. "This is additional evidence that we're experiencing a soft landing. We may see some minor….

-The situation is a “soft landing” in prices, said Linda Small, mortgage loan officer for Community Bank of Santa Maria.

-"It's pretty self-evident the (residential) market has cooled," said Kevin Kronk of Brentwood Homes, president of the Volusia County Home Builders Association. "But the language we hear is the market is coming in for a soft landing, not a crash. The builders aren't worried about it," he added. "Nobody is panicking."

-Unlike the coasts, however, "the Illinois market isn't overheated, so there won't be a collapse, which is good news," Swonk said. "We're headed for a soft landing."

-Economists said that housing is experiencing a 'soft landing' and not the drop previously forecast," stated Sonja Rudd in Wall Street News Alert's daily

-“The good economic backdrop [in Arkansas] is providing a soft landing scenario for the housing market,” Yun said.

-"The anticipated degree of decline in starts for 2006 (6 percent to 7 percent) still qualifies as a 'soft landing' for the housing market, following unsustainable exuberance in 2005," David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, wrote in his April 19 column.