WELCOME TO THE RECOVERY - AT 8:59 A.M. ET:  We regularly run our "welcome to the recovery" tidbits to point out that there remains real, continuing pain in the actual economy, despite gains in the artificial economy of Wall Street.  We point out once more that there was a stock market rally between 1933 and 1937, in the depths of the Great Depression:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.

"They were the worst three months of all time," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.

During that time, 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter -- whether a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession, the RealtyTrac report said. That means one in every 136 U.S. homes were in foreclosure, which is a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008.

Nevada continued to be the worst-hit state with one filing for every 23 households.

COMMENT:  One of the great hustles of the last 25 years is the notion, bought by too many gullible citizens, that real estate never goes down.  Of course it does. 

Yes, for many it's been a wonderful investment, and, being pro-free enterprise, we applaud good investments, in real estate or anything else.   But too many Americans became true believers, and have gotten burned.

There are no sure things. 

October 15, 2009