Typical US home now cheaper than HDB flat

[Hishercar]

 

If the topic title is true then it is fair to assume that our HDB flat prices are unreasonably high especially when it is actually PUBLIC HOUSING.

 

your reasoning and thoughts please.

 

 

 

SIGN OF TROUBLED TIMES

Typical US home now cheaper than HDB flat

SO, how bad are things over there, really?

12 January 2009

SO, how bad are things over there, really?

 

Hungry for first-hand news from the US 'economic warfront', I posed this delicate question about the US economy to Sok (a visiting sister-in-law back from Los Angeles for her year-end break).

 

It's truly bad, she lamented, with an a typical grimace on her usually-beaming face.

When we last met in LA around Christmas in 2007, they were happier times.

 

Back then, our families shopped and dined at The Grove - a boutique outdoor shopping mall located across the street from the world-famous LA Farmer's Market - where, on a good day, you might just stumble upon a Hollywood celebrity (or two).

 

Meltdown woes

 

'But today The Grove is much, much quieter,' Sok reported. 'You can feel it in the frigid air. And it's all no thanks to the meltdown on Wall Street.'

 

To be sure, both Sok and her husband Murali hold relatively stable jobs. She works at an LA library while he teaches at the University of Southern California.

 

But, not unlike many other Asian expatriates living in America, they, too, worry about whether home prices in the US will ever stop dropping - what with the median home over there now costing only US$180,800 ($268,500).

 

Yes, the median American home is now cheaper than most HDB flats in Singapore.

 

More importantly, my 'Chindian' in-laws also worry whether some of their friends, especially those working in California's Silicon Valley, could soon lose their jobs.

 

Latest figures

 

All in all, US employers shed a total of 2.6 million jobs in 2008 - the worst-ever year since 1945.

 

This latest job loss figure points to a US job market that's still in a free fall.

 

Many US companies across all sectors of the economy have, in fact, resumed mass layoffs (after a brief respite over the year-end holidays).

 

Last week alone, insurance provider Cigna Corp, aluminum producer Alcoa Inc, data-storage company EMC Corp and computer products maker Logitech International have announced large job cuts.

 

'The toughest six months will be the just-completed fourth quarter and the first quarter of this year,' said Mr Robert Barbera, chief economist at the Investment Technology Group, a research and trading firm.

 

Hope for recovery

 

But Mr Barbera also noted that a widely anticipated trillion-dollar stimulus package should begin to revive the US economy in the second