Civil War - How Did the Foes Match Up?

So, by August 1861 people sensed the war would not be short, and in would be bloody. There was still hope for a quick solution, but a string of victories for the South emboldened the Confederacy, and firmed up Lincoln's resolve. So how did the sides compare?

From all appearances, the North held a tremendous advantage: more than 3 times the number of available fighting men, 70% of railroads, over 90% of iron & coal production, and three quarters of the nations wealth. The South produced by far the greatest export - cotton - but that was cut off by the Union naval blockade.

Yet, the South had important strengths. They needed only to win a defensive war fighting for their homes. Cotton was crucial to British and French industry; thus, the diplomatic pressure could favor the Confederacy. But most important, in a war of unprecedented scale and complexity, the South had superior military leadership. Stonewall Jackson routinely outfought larger Union forces. And, Robert E Lee would go down in history as one of the great field commanders.

This would be a new kind of war with extensive use of railroads, the telegraph, the machine gun and ironclad warships. And, no one was prepared for the casualties. By war's end there were over 600,000 dead and 2 million wounded. Fully one third of adult southern men died or were wounded from 1861 to 1865. But in that August 150 years ago, no one could foresee such a tragic outcome.

Home Sale Data - A different view

One of the money center banks recently presented an interesting view on home values. They looked at every state and compared home value trends with and without the influence of distressed sales. The result shows that 14 states have experienced appreciation - in one case as high as 8% - with distressed home sales factored out. And the large overhang of 90+ past due and in-process-foreclosures continues to exert gravitational pull on certain key markets.

Our view is that even statewide data is of limited use to folks - realtors, counselors, appraisers - dealing with home value challenges. The various sources of data must be applied to both the property and market complexity issues. We conclude this shows that deeper analysis - perhaps even down to the 10 block zone - can give much better insight to those handling home sales.