Interesting perspective on housing from a true real estate billionaire Mort Zuckerman.

Mr. Zuckerman made his money…in real estate. So,it would be safe to assume he would do his best to be a real estate cheerleader.. to talk up real estate…vs what he seems to do in this blog post.

Read what he has to say…and understand the ramifications of his comments…

America’s housing crisis has not gone away. If anything, it is getting more severe. Today, median single family house prices nationwide are down by slightly more than 30 per cent from their early 2006 peak. Fusion IQ, the research group, estimates that excess inventories will push prices down by a further 10 per cent. This is a critical issue because home equity was for years the largest asset on the balance sheet of the average American family.

The sheer number of empty homes overhanging the residential property market points to lower prices. There are an estimated 7m homes empty today, and an estimated 7.7m houses and condominiums behind on their mortgage payments. This is tantamount to a shadow inventory.

Agents, his estimates for potential upcoming foreclosures are the same as we have reported on this blog…15,000,000. Can there by any doubt that its NOT TOO late for you to become a REO Listing Agent? Take action now and watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets video and download the FREE Agent REO Secrets book. Learn how to become a HREU RSD and get the jump on the next wave of foreclosures!

More than 4m of those are now delinquent and going through some form of foreclosure or related procedures that will put them on the market in the next year or two. Fannie Mae’s 90-day delinquency rate is now roughly 5.5 per cent, double that of a year ago.

Home sales are depressed, too, by competition from some 6m rental vacancies, or 11 per cent of total rental supply. Median asking rents have been declining by an estimated 3.5 per cent over the past year – and that is accelerating.

There is no cheer in the new residential numbers either. January’s new home sales plunged by more than 11 per cent month-on-month to an annual rate of 309,000 units, the weakest on record. It now takes a record 14.2 months to sell a finished house. In the boom years, it took about three.

Even worse, the median price for new homes sold was $203,500, almost a seven-year low, and that for existing single-family homes fell 3.5 per cent month over month to $163,600, a new eight-year low. Inventories rose to a 9.1 month supply, which on top of the shadow inventory of unsold houses and those in the foreclosure pipeline does not bode well for homebuilders or housing. Neither does the sharp decline in mortgage applications to the lowest levels since May 2007 and the rise on the 30-year mortgage rates to more than 5 per cent.

Roughly one in four mortgages today exceeds the house’s value – approximately 10.7m homes. American Corelogic, the research provider, estimates an average deficiency per home of $70,700 or an aggregate of about $800bn.

OK, this is scary. If you will recall, last week in this blog post we shared with you the new research that proved that homeowners will do a strategic default at considerably higher rates when they are…$70,000 or 25% upside down. Using Corelogic’s numbers this would result in 10.7 million potential strategic defaults!

An additional 2.3m homes had less than 5 per cent equity. The remaining equity for many other homeowners is at historic lows. With declining prices beginning to hit the middle to higher ends of the housing market, we are looking at another foreclosure wave.

….and that is what we have been predicting for over a year….agents, if even half of what this blog post were to come true..what would that mean to your real estate market…and your real estate business? Are you ready…have you learned the new 2010 Short Sale Guidelines? Hopefully you know by now that the Obama administration is focusing on making short sales the solution to the inevitable massive increase in foreclosures. Watch the FREE Harris Real Estate University ASD Short Sale Secrets video now…and grab your free short sale book.

Popularity: 1% [?]