Douglas Duncan Home Quotations

It comes down to what people are doing with their home equity.

We have seen a lot of pre-positioning. Boomers are buying that retirement home before they have sold their current residence.

A fair number of first-time home purchases were brought forward because rates were so good, and a number of people also moved up in the market, when they were able to get a bigger mortgage at a lower rate. When rates move up, you won't get those first-time sales or the move-up factor. Is that offset by the benefits of economic expansion? In our view, not quite.

They know it won't be long before the limit will go up. They start making the loans on the assumption that the limit will be increased because home prices have been rising.

We expect home sales will drop marginally -- about 3 percent -- in each of the next two years from this year's level, which will be an all-time record.

I am not aware that it has occurred before. At the end of the day, everyone hopes all the borrowers will be able to return to a home and meet their mortgage payments on time and be re-established in their housing.