Housing Headed to the Woodshed

Editor's note: This column by Doug Kass is a special bonus for TheStreet.com and RealMoney readers. It first appeared on Street Insight on Sept. 28 at 8:29 a.m. EDT. To sign up for Street Insight, where you can read Kass' commentary in real time, please click here.

"We do expect an adjustment in home prices to last several months, as we work through a buildup in the inventory of homes on the market. ...This is the price correction we've been expecting -- with sales stabilizing, we should go back to positive price growth early next year."
-- David Lereah, economist, National Association of Realtors

The New York Times, September 2006

Wrong!

Lereah, whom I debated on CNBC's "Town Hall Special: The Real Estate Boom," in April 2005, is a very nice man and a capable economist. I recently had a most pleasant conversation with him at CNBC studios two months ago prior to a CNBC Survival special on housing hosted by Bill Griffeth.

Lereah is also the author of the book Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom? Why Home Values and Other Real Estate Investment Will Climb Through The End of the Decade -- And How to Profit From Them.

Not the most timely publication, Lereah's book was published within four months of the statistical peak in housing activity and prices in 2005. In fact, the paperback version came out in February 2006, when the down cycle was beginning to escalate.

I am in no way trying to embarrass Lereah. I am just stating the facts and my opinions, like I try to do when I admit my (many) views and mistakes on Street Insight. Don't think for a minute that the National Association of Realtors' Lereah was expecting a price correction last year, as stated in this month's New York Times interview above.

Back in April 2005 (on the CNBC special), Lereah and the managements of Hovnavian(HOV Quote), Prudential Realty and LendingTree were fully convinced (you might say glib) that the housing market was destined for a long boom. They saw a new paradigm of uninterrupted, noncyclical growth. One month later, Lereah was quoted as saying, "We simply don't have enough homes on the market to meet demand."