Foreclosures Continue to Weigh on Home Values

ScottR · Chief Bottle Washer Joined: Feb 11, 2006 Posts: 332

Distressed homes continue to chip away at overall home prices across the country, but the “plunging collapse of prices seen in 2007-2009 seem to be behind us,” David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard and Poor, said in a recent statement.

For the third quarter, market research firm CoreLogic reports about 22 percent of all borrowers with residential homes are “underwater,” owing more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth.

"The negative equity portion definitely continues to be one of the major issues for the housing market, [and] the overall economy as well," Anika Khan, an economist with Wells Fargo Securities, told Market News International.

The states with the highest percentage of borrowers with negative equity, according to CoreLogic are:

•Nevada: 58 percent
•Arizona: 47 percent
•Florida: 44 percent
•Michigan: 35 percent
•Georgia: 30 percent
"Home prices continue to come down due to the number of distressed transactions, be it short sales or foreclosures or REO, and we expect that pace to continue into 2012," Khan told Market News International.

Source: “Analysts: Distressed Sales Still Weighing On US Housing Market,” Market News International (Nov. 29, 2011)