As the housing downturn wears on, some cities are stabilizing and some aren't. In Las Vegas, the weakest market in the country, prices continue to drop. "I don't know what those guys were drinking when they thought all this building made sense. If it does work out soon, then there's some force out there in the universe that I'm not aware of," Steve Cesinger, chief financial officer at Dewberry Capital, an Atlanta-based real estate investment firm. Forbes magazine analyzed monthly declines as well as year-over-year declines in home prices. It also looked at how many months of equity homeowners have lost. With these figures in mind, it determined the 10 best and the 10 worst U.S. housing markets. Here they are: 10 Best New York City Washington, DC Charlotte, N.C. Portland, Ore San Diego Denver Boston Dallas Los Angeles Seattle 10 Worst Las Vegas Phoenix Detroit Minneapolis San Francisco Chicago Cleveland Atlanta Tampa Miami Source: Forbes: Matt Woolsey (02/24/2005)
Home foreclosures are slowing as lenders wait for Congress to approve the stimulus package.Foreclosures.com reported that foreclosures completed in January dropped 26 percent from December to 72,694, the fewest since April.On Wednesday, the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision told the savings and loans it regulates to suspend foreclosures on owner-occupied homes while the details of a plan to help borrowers reduce payments is worked out. The new plan is expected to hold monthly housing-related payments to 31 percent of income, as opposed to 38 percent, which was the previous standard. Workouts including lower payments will also be available to borrowers who are in danger of falling behind, but haven't so far.Meanwhile, Moody's Economy.com predicts that 1.5 million homes will be lost to foreclosure in 2009, up from 1.4 million in 2008 and 750,000 in 2007."What the foreclosure-mitigation efforts will do is to keep the number of foreclosures from increasing substantially this year and next year," said Celia Chen, senior director of housing economics at the firm.Source: The Wall Street Journal, James R. Hagerty and Ruth Simon
Posts
