Unemployment Still Increasing Sharply

The national unemployment rate reached 8.5% in March. That's almost a full percentage point higher than the January reading of 7.6%. Ben Bernanke said at the time that unemployment would climb to 8.0% "for sure." Presumably, he felt that a higher figure would have sounded outlandish. In retrospect, he was being overly cautious.

The Bay Area unemployment rate has been climbing rapidly as well. It hit 9.9% in March, compared to 8.8% in January and only 5.1% in March of 2008.

It's hard to see home prices stabilizing when the job market is deteriorating so rapidly.