Home price slump deepens

By Les Christie, staff writer
January 25, 2011: 10:46 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- November home prices continued their latest slump, falling 1% compared with October, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 metro markets.

San Diego was the only market that didn't slip, posting a slight gain of 0.1%. The overall index fell for the fifth straight month and prices are at about the same level they were in mid-2003.

"With these numbers, more analysts will be calling for a double-dip in home prices," said David Blitzer, spokesman for Standard & Poor's...

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/25/real_estate/november_home_prices/index.htm

Cheaper to buy than to rent in 72% of largest U.S. cities
Trulia: Former homeowners flooding rental market
By Inman News, Monday, January 24, 2011.

Despite the rising number of renters across the country, it is cheaper to buy a home rather than rent one in 72 percent of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., according to an index released by real estate search and marketing site Trulia.

"Since the start of the 'Great Recession,' many former homeowners have flooded the rental market. Following the principles of supply and demand, renting has become relatively more expensive than buying in most markets," said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia, in a statement.

"Though necessary for achieving true economic recovery, stricter bank lending practices have also further aggravated the struggling housing market in the short term. Even highly qualified homebuyers face intense scrutiny on their income, savings, existing debt and credit history before they can get a mortgage loan."...
http://www.inman.com/news/2011/01/24/cheaper-buy-rent-in-72-largest-us-cities

Shadow inventory threatens housing recovery

By Les Christie, staff writer
January 20, 2011: 7:34 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- There is a growing glut of foreclosed homes threatening to hit the market over the next couple of years, potentially delaying any recovery.

There were 1.7 million homes either owned by the bank or in some stage of foreclosure at the end of the third quarter of 2010, according to a recent report by Standard & Poor's. It would take 44 months, at the current rate of sales, to sell them off -- a 25% increase from the beginning of 2010. (S&P does not count home loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.)

This so-called "shadow inventory" may depress home values and delay the housing market recovery.

"The problem is you have all these properties coming down the pipeline that are nearly certain to hit the market. That's going to be a negative for the supply-demand equation," said Diane Westerback, Managing Director for S&P and an author of the report...

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/20/real_estate/shadow_inventory_rise/index.htm

Daily Real Estate News   January 20, 2011

Global direct property investment is expected to rise 20 percent in 2011 to $380 billion, led by a sharp rise from the United States.

Commercial real estate investments - such as malls, offices, and industrial properties - reached $316 billion in 2010. That represented a 50 percent increase from an eight-year low in 2009 of $209 billion.

"Barring further sovereign debt crises or financial shocks, the momentum of 2010 is expected to continue over the next 12 months, and we predict global volumes for 2011 should increase by 20 to 25 percent," Arthur de Haast, head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s International Capital Group, told Reuters News.

The property consultancy company expects volumes in the Americas to jump 40 percent to $135 billion this year. U.S. recovery has been spurred by investor interests in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco...

http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2011012005

By MAURA WEBBER SADOVI

By Dan Levy and Prashant Gopal - Jan 13, 2011 12:00 AM GMT-0500

The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20 percent in 2011, reaching a peak for the housing crisis, as unemployment remains high and banks resume seizures after a slowdown, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

"We will peak in foreclosures and probably bottom out in pricing, and that’s what we need to do in order to begin the recovery," Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. "But it’s probably not going to feel good in the process."...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/u-s-foreclosure-filings-may-jump-20-this-year-as-crisis-peaks.html

- Thu Jan 13, 2:16 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Banks moved to repossess a record 2.87 million US homes in 2010 as the two-year-old mortgage crisis continued to weigh heavily on the economy, foreclosure specialist RealtyTrac said.

Foreclosures hit 2.23 percent of all housing units in the country, or one out of 45, an increase from 2.21 percent in 2009, RealtyTrac said in its 2010 report.

But the pace of foreclosures eased up in the fourth quarter, as banks ran into increasing legal challenges from owners angry that banks had repossessed their homes under a slipshod process...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110113/ts_alt_afp/ushousingbanking

RISMEDIA, January 12, 2011 - CoreLogic, a leading provider of information, analytics and business services released its November 2010 Home Price Index (HPI) which shows that home prices in the U.S. declined for the fourth month in a row. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices - including distressed sales - declined by 5.07% in November 2010 compared to November 2009 and declined by 3.35% in October 2010 compared to October 2009. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 2.21% in November 2010 compared to November 2009 and declined by 2.24% in October 2010 compared to October 2009. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
http://rismedia.com/2011-01-11/corelogic-home-price-index-shows-decline-for-fourth-straight-month/