Dr. Doom’s Penthouse Purchase Comes With A Gloomy Housing Prediction

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 30:  Nouriel Roubini, pro...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Last month Forbes and Curbed reported that Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini, renowned economist, New York University professor and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, dropped $5.5 million for the most expensive for-sale apartment in Manhattan’s hip East Village neighborhood.

Roubini became a household business guru name after prophesying the global economic crash of 2008 long before anyone else was willing to do so.   The economic doomsayer, who may be equally notorious for his fabulously raucous house parties, shelled out seven figures for his swanky new triplex penthouse condo — even though his Tribeca, NYC  loft remains on the market — but that doesn’t mean he’s any less bearish on housing.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: Another Real Estate Crisis

In a recent video interview with Steve Forbes, Forbes Editor-in-Chief and host of the Intelligent Investing web video series, Roubini predicts that the U.S. housing market is in for a double-dip recession.   The most recent findings of the  Case-Shiller Index echo Roubini’s real estate doom, reports my colleague Agustino Fontevecchia.

Roubini tells  Steve Forbes:

“In the case of residential real estate, I would say prices and quantities have fallen so much from the peak, that probably they are close to the bottom.  But the trouble is that you have millions of houses that are deeply underwater — 12 million of them already underwater today — and about another eight million have a mortgage with a loan to value ratio between 95 to 100%.

“That means that the 5% correction in national home price — something that I expect — is going to put another eight million houses underwater.  That means 20 million out of the 50 that have a mortgage — or 40% of houses with a mortgage — are going to be underwater.”


Well so much for those bullish musings about Dr. Doom’s decision to buy.  If he is right again, we have a lot to worry about housing-wise.   That doesn’t even account for the commercial real estate market, which Roubini asserts has “yet to be resolved.”

As for the sprawling new party pad, Roubini notes that he got a hefty discount on the going price (originally listed at $7.35 Million), a reason for which other eager aspiring homeowners might consider buying now as well.  “The price I got it was almost 30% less than what was listed,” says Roubini on-camera.  “So even in New York, essentially prices are effectively 30% below what they were before.  That is exactly the cumulative fall in home prices we’ve had at the national level.”

To hear more on housing from Dr. Doom himself, watch the video below.

Open all references in tabs: [1 – 7]