Wednesday, February 04, 2009

More homes underwater; distress sales mounting

Almost a third of all home sales are foreclosures, REOs, and short sales:
Real estate values around the nation have collapsed, and sales of foreclosed and "underwater" homes now dominate many housing markets, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, from Zillow.com, a real estate Web site, revealed that with foreclosures soaring, nearly 20% of the nation's home sales in 2008 were of bank-repossessed properties. Another 11% were short sales, in which homeowners owed more in mortgage debt than their homes were worth. ...

"As more markets turn down and markets that were already down go deeper, the pace at which value is being erased from the U.S. housing stock is rapidly increasing," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's vice president in charge of data and analytics.

"More value [was] wiped out in the fourth quarter of 2008 than was eliminated in all of 2007," Humphries said.

About $3.3 trillion in home equity was erased in 2008, with $1.4 trillion of that wipeout coming in the fourth quarter alone, according to Humphries. More than $6 trillion in value has been lost since the market peaked in 2005. ...

In the United States, 17.6% of all homes are now underwater, according to Zillow, as are 41.2% of all mortgages for homes bought in the past five years.

12 comments:

  1. spin-meisters...have at it!

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  2. Good point anon! There's a whole bunch of spin in there for sure.

    "Real estate values around the nation have collapsed"

    ... yes, and we have slums and ghettos "around the nation" too ... funny how this fact doesn't seem to affect the average person though ...

    spin, spin, spin

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  3. I would say at least SOME of the "average person" is in that 41.2% of all homes bought in the past 5 years.

    spin spin spin?

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  4. Not necessarily. Would you consider flippers "average"?

    I'll bet a good percentage of the 20% + 11% were flippers.

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  5. for the record, the first and second anon responses are different people. :D

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  6. Lance,

    so the entire 41% of all buyers who are currently underwater were flippers???

    spin spin spin?

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  7. Anon 4:25,

    Read read read

    " nearly 20% of the nation's home sales in 2008 were of bank-repossessed properties. Another 11% were short sales"

    yes, a good percentage are likely flippers. They had the same mentality as BHs, they saw a home as a financial investment and not as a "home" ... i.e., quality of life investment.

    And the 41% of buyers who are under water ... ? Did they buy to live in their places ... or to flip them? Considering all of these folks have been in their homes less than 5 years ... which is the time one should expect to be in their home to recoup the transaction costs associated with buying a home, then they really aren't any worse off then they should have expected to be. Of course it's not them making a big deal about this ... but you ... who I suspect is a bubblehead ... or I have tended to call bubbleheads, a "wannabe flipper" ... i.e., someone who had they had the funds would have been buying their homes as a way to make quick money ... and not as something to live in. I think that is the disconnect. Many BHs are flippers ... or would be, if they'd the money.

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  8. ... and now these wannabe flippers are full of glee that their kindred spirits, the flippers who had the money to flip/try to flip, weren't always successful.

    The real problem is that being a wannabe flipper doesn't bode well for be a real homeowner. There are major misunderstandings about what a home is. The first being that it is an expense to be minimized, and it has nothing to do with bringing a return on financial investment, but instead a way of increasing your quality of life.

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  9. FYI: Breaking News

    Stimulus Bill Gets Housing Tax Perk
    GOP Senators Sought Provision


    By Shailagh Murray
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Thursday, February 5, 2009; Page A04

    .... The Isakson provision would offer a tax credit of up to $15,000 for any home bought as a primary residence, for one year after the stimulus bill is signed into law.

    www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020401751.html?hpid=topnews

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  10. Lance...

    OF COURSE it affects the average person. How can it not?

    You're so detached from reality man...it's not even funny.

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  11. "And the 41% of buyers who are under water ... ? Did they buy to live in their places ... or to flip them?"

    Maybe you should take your own advice and "read read read"

    I have no idea what peoples motives are! However the statement is 41% of every single home bought (at least with a mortgage) by ANYONE within the past 5 years ARE UNDER WATER!

    I have no idea how you can tell who bought what for what reasons though. Im not going to sit here and try to guess why someone would buy a home in the past 5 years (cause in my opinion that would instantly tell me they dont have a brain to reason with)

    I know I didn't buy an grossly overpriced home in the past 5 years, but then again, that would instantly take me out of your "flipper" category.

    spin spin spin?

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