Home Prices Are Stablizing, But Foreclosures Still Account For 20 Percent Of Sales: Zillow

CNBC: On the way down and on the way up, home prices always lag sales, but they may be beginning to catch up. A new report from Zillow.com finds home values stabilized in the third quarter of this year, as sales of new and existing homes grew.

"While 116 metropolitan areas experienced Q3 year-over-year declines in home values, only nine metropolitan areas saw accelerating year-over year home value declines," according to the report.

That is resulting in slightly improved negative equity. Zillow finds 21 percent of single-family home owners are in a negative equity position in Q3, as compared to 23 percent at the end of Q2.

The question remains if this is a real trend or a temporary surge brought on by non-organic factors. The first-time home buyer tax credit added an additional 350,000 buyers to the housing market, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the Federal Reserve's investment in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages and mortgage backed securities have kept mortgage rates artificially low.

And then there's the foreclosure quandary. Zillow estimates more than one fifth of all sales in September were foreclosure re-sales, up from 15 percent a year ago. Realtors have put that at a higher number. -- Diana Olick

Read the rest of the story here. For a slideshow of the most expensive housing markets, check out CNBC's story here.

Comments

[Chip W]

Still, rising house prices are considered good news, falling prices are bad.
How about real-world prices?
What would house prices be if the market were a simple supply/demand market?

[stopthebailings]

hat tip to: http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com

[TradeLosses]

Lets all pray that the health care bill doesn't get stonewalled in the Senate...

good articles; http://financeopinions.blogspot.com

This is just one step in a staircase of much needed reforms after 8 years of destruction.

[Siebenstein]

Keep deceiving the public. The recasting ARM's will hit the market starting in 2010. Let's see how the market stabilization looks then.

[brittanie flegle]

I agree with Vindrag -- scary to think how this will affect the rest of the economy in the future with another bubble.

[Siebenstein]

That bubble can be watched starting next year...

[mountainweb]

Foreclosure is just another way for a bank to steal property!

[Siebenstein]

100 % true

[BocaMom]

If Congress and the President don't start to FOCUS on fixing the economy and getting America back to work, we are going to lose Congress and the White House in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

[StockMarkets]

No more bailouts. No more too big to fail. more effort needs to be done to make work. Instead, unemployment keeps climbing as well as the deficit. Tax cuts and toehr stupid gimmicks aren't the answer.

hat tip to http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com

[Chubbster]

This is an excellent example of propaganda.

[vindrag]

I question the figure of 20%. I think it is much higher, but what the figures don't show is the influence those rock bottom foreclosures sales have on the rest of the market. Existing homeowners and builders have to compete by lowering their prices to almost the same level. It becomes a viscous circle as more foreclosures and short sales are added to the market every day.

[Beernuts]

Riggghhhtttt! What? I'm sure "Flip this House" replays are on right this minute on the TEEVEE.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

That's what happens when an inflated market collapses. Or do you still believe housing prices can go up forever?