Well, they call economics the "dismal science" for a reason: economists at Moody's estimate that U.S. defaults will reach 2.5 million for 2008, a rate of about 4.5 percent of all home loans.
That's roughly triple the historical high end of the foreclosure cycle - defaults have generally ranged from 0.5% to 1.5% of outstanding loans.
The Moody's 2008 default estimate is significantly more than the earlier estimate of 1.69 million predicted by Credit Suisse back in June.
Jason,
This just goes to show that this credit/liquidity/real estate crisis will be a drag on our economy for some time to come.
Take care!
RJH