Market Roundup

Home sellers are seeing their properties languish on the market for years, in some cases. It is beginning to seem normal to see properties that have been listed for more than 360 days
As we are rounding this year, the news isn’t going to look a lot better for home sellers.
Unemployment is extremely high and companies are still laying off workers in many areas. Where unemployment is high, foreclosures are spiking.
Speaking of foreclosures, the number of homes receiving a foreclosure notice hit an all-time high in 2010, but the number is expected to rise further next year (perhaps as high as 4 million).
While the number of homes on the market has shrunk a bit, there is a shadow inventory of as many as 2.5 million homes that hasn’t even been listed. This includes properties where homeowners are delinquent on their mortgage and bank-owned properties (also known as REO properties).
The only pieces of good news: mortgage interest rates hit a 50-year low recently falling all the way to 4.71 for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and 4.25 percent for a 15-year loan, and the federal government offered the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and in November introduced the $6,500 trade-up tax credit.
Unfortunately, home sellers are going to find tougher conditions all around next year, as the tax credits end, mortgage interest rates rise, and the number of foreclosures increases.
More economists and industry observers are saying that the housing industry will make an extremely slow recovery due to the lack of jobs and the tightening of credit.