Real estate market may plunge U.S. into deeper recession

AP Photo

The deepness of the recession is indicated by  two sets of statistics that belie the happy talk of its ending.  For new housing sales there is little to indicate a rising sales volume and  people who have been living in homes without making payments for 6 months to a year will receive foreclosure notices.

Newly Built Homes

Some houses built during the boom may never be sold and home builders are going to have to cut prices a lot more to find buyers. New-home sales are now running at only about a quarter of peak levels, a fall far deeper than anything seen since the statistics began being collected in the 1960s. The drop in prices for new homes  is 23 percent.

Of the 135,000 completed but unsold new homes at the end of May, nearly half had been sitting for a year or more. The median age of such homes was 11.5 months, an unprecedented figure.

Existing Homes

Owners who have been behind or not making payments at all while living in their homes for six months to a year have begun receiving foreclosure notices that have been delayed while Obama's housing rescue plan passed in February 2009 was clarified.  Now lenders who have delayed foreclosures are moving forward to take legal action and begin taking possession of the homes.

This is called the 2nd wave of foreclosures and it is expected that by the time it is over, a total 2 million homes in the U.S. will have been forfeited.  This is expected to depress the real estate market even further.  Before the housing market can recover, these houses will have to be worked off.

To read the entire articles, go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/business/economy/27charts.html?_r=1&8au&emc=au

http://www.realestateproarticles.com/Art/7445/265/Riding-the-2nd-Wave-of-Foreclosures.html

More articles about the recession, go to:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2547-Watchdog-Politics-Examiner~y2009m5d10-Economic-happy-talk-blind-mans-bluff

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2547-Watchdog-Politics-Examiner~y2009m3d11-Depression-expected-by-majority-of-Americans

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2547-Watchdog-Politics-Examiner~y2009m1d28-Obama-Buy-American-plan-to-deepen-recession

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2547-Watchdog-Politics-Examiner~y2009m1d27-Recession-versus-Depression

Want to read more articles by the National Watchdog Politics examiner? Subscribe at the top of this column to receive e-mail updates.
Want to participate in the discussion about the recession?  Add your comments.

Previous articles by examiner Watchdog Politics