NEW YORK (Reuters) – Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.

Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month.

It is a dubious milestone for the U.S. housing market which has failed to gain much traction despite a host of government programs to reduce delinquencies and encourage demand with temporary tax credits and lower interest rates. Many economists expect further price drops, even if there are some anecdotal signs of growing demand, such as in pending home sales data.

“For the next six to nine months, the larger factors affecting the housing market that will produce more home price declines will be the excess inventory of homes, high negative equity and foreclosure rates, and weakened demand due to elevated employment, Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in a blog post.

Declines are accelerating, and it will take a while before falling unemployment and other signs of economic improvement support the market, Zillow said.

Home prices fell at a 0.78 percent pace in November, the fastest since February 2009, the company said.

(Reporting by Al Yoon, Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Presented by:

The www.SellMyouse.com Team

atlanta · Bank Owned · birmingham · cashflow · cheap houses · chicago · fannie mae · Foreclosures · Freddie Mac · ft lauderdale · Home Prices · housing market · jacksonville · jason roberts · miami · nashville · orlando · palm coast · Pending Home Sales · real esate expert · Realtor Partners · sell my home · sell my house · sellmyhouse.com · short sale · st louis · stop foreclosure · tampa · we buy houses

www.SellMyHouse.com has been saying for a very long time that the HAFA program has been at best, a very iffy program. But last week the US Treasury implemented new rules to make short sales easier. We’ve heard this before of course.

Changes to HAFA:

- Short sale answers must come within 30 days
- Servicers are no longer required to verify a borrower’s financial information
- Servicers are no longer required to determine if the debt-to-income exceeds 31%
- Second lien holders no longer must accept 6% of the unpaid balance.

The goal of these changes is to expedite short sales, which is good news for home owners, realtors, investors and ultimately the banks.

As always, www.sellmyhouse.com will stay on top of the results for our Realtor and investor networks.

The www.SellMyhouse.com Team

atlanta · Bank Owned · birmingham · cheap houses · chicago · fannie mae · Foreclosures · Freddie Mac · ft lauderdale · guru · housing market · jacksonville · jason roberts · miami · nashville · orlando · palm coast · real esate expert · real estate expert · Realtor Partners · Realtors · REO · sell my home · sellmyhouse.com · short sale · st louis · stop foreclosure · tampa · todd snipes · we buy houses

At www.SellMyHouse.com our goal is to stay one step ahead of the market on behalf of our buyers, sellers, and investors. We continue to add new video content to Youtube from our www.AmericasBestRehabs.com and www.TheDealMagnet.com websites to discuss new strategies to utilize in today’s market.

Jason, Scott, and Todd want to hear from you as to your thoughts, goals, and strategies for 2011. Here’s our weekly update on all things relavent to real estate.

Home values lose $1.7 trillion in 2010 – CNNMoney has a story today about the dollar loss in real estate value for 2010. As just about everyone in real estate knows, the homebuyer tax credit propped up the first half of 2010, but really just served to pull most people who would have purchased later in the year, into the first half. Distressed home sellers continue to make up a huge portion of the real estate market – do you have a plan to resolve this problem or to target these properties for purchase?  Need to stop foreclosure? 

Want to learn how or where to buy cheap houses?
Strategic Planning - Speaking of planning, it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day, but as the year ends, have you reviewed (or started!) your strategic plan? I’ve found that creating a strategic plan for the year and then reviewing it monthly and weekly has had a huge positive impact on our business, especially during turbulent times. One of the simplest, easy to use tools for this is Verne Harnish’s One Page Strategic Plan.

2011 Outlook – Next year will continue to be turbulent for real estate. From the thousands of “motivated” home sellers contacting us each month, we continue to see a very high number of foreclosures on the horizon. Because most sellers contact us before they are behind in their payments or in foreclosure, it gives us a 6-8 month outlook on the national housing market. Companies that figure out how to work with current real estate market conditions should thrive next year! Those that “hunker down” waiting for the market to “come back” may be gone in 12 months. What is your strategy?

The www.SellMyHouse.com Team

PS. Make sure you Follow Us On Facebook and our weekly Radio Show!

SellMyHouse.com Radio Network

Youtube

FaceBook

Twitter

TheDealMagnet

atlanta · birmingham · cashflow · cheap houses · chicago · contract for deed · fannie mae · Foreclosures · Freddie Mac · ft lauderdale · guru · Home Prices · housing market · jacksonville · jason roberts · Lead Generation · lease option · miami · nashville · orlando · owner finance houses · owner financing · palm coast · Pending Home Sales · real esate expert · Realtor Partners · REO · sell my home · sell my house · st louis · stop foreclosure · tampa · tax sales · todd snipes · we buy houses

More bad news out of the housing market today as Zillow, a leading online real estate marketplace, released their third quarter report and it largely echos what we saw in yesterday’s Clear Capital report – the housing market is double dipping. Home values fell an average -4.3% in the third quarter. Stan Humphries, the Chief Economist at Zillow says the housing market decline is likely to surpass the Great Depression’s decline and that prices are unlikely to recover before next summer:

While not unexpected, the unceasing declines in home values signal that we’re in for a long, bleak winter of continued troubles for the housing market. The length and depth of the current housing recession is rivaling the Great Depression’s real estate downturn, and, with encouraging signs fading, will easily eclipse it in the coming months.

Humphries also said the number of foreclosures reached a new all-time high and that the number of homeowners under water on their loan has now reached 23% – a high this year. Humphries is not optimistic:

The high percentage of homeowners in negative equity continues to be troubling, in that it represents a huge number of people who are not only more vulnerable to foreclosure, but who are essentially trapped in their current homes and are prevented from selling and buying a new home. This has profound implications for future demand and will be a millstone around the neck of the housing market.

The housing market is playing out almost exactly as I’ve expected in recent years. This still remains a simple supply and demand story. The overhang of inventory is crushing meager demand and the mortgage mess isn’t helping matters as shadow inventory is pushed further into the future. If you thought the housing crisis in the USA was behind us you might want to think again. Housing was the domino that set the credit crisis in motion in 2007 and it could pose a very serious risk in 2011.

Source: Zillow

atlanta · birmingham · jacksonville · miami · orlando · palm coast · sell my home · sell my house · short sale · stop foreclosure · tampa · we buy houses

http://bit.ly/9vORU7

atlanta · birmingham · jacksonville · miami · orlando · palm coast · sell my home · sell my house · short sale · stop foreclosure · tampa · we buy houses