Arnold has high hopes for California real estate

He’s a better actor than he is a governor, and that’s not saying much. But how good of an economic forecaster is Arnold Schwarzenneger? In about a year, we’ll know.

Reporter Greg Robb, writing for MarketWatch, quotes the California governor as saying that his state will shake off its housing problems by 2009. You can read the story here.

No one has a crystal ball. But if I had to guess, I’d say that Arnold’s prediction is worth as much as a crate of old VHS copies of Kindergarten Cop. California has been one of the — if not the — states hit hardest by the country’s housing slump. Home prices there have plummeted, and sales times for existing homes have grown. Foreclosures are up.

Most real estate experts — not ones who have starred as Danny DeVito’s twin in an alleged comedy — are predicting that the country’s housing slump won’t truly ease until sometime in 2010. To predict that California will come out of its real estate slowdown before the rest of the country doesn’t seem wise to me.

Then again, starring in Terminator 3 at the age of 55 wasn’t so smart, either.