From Reuters, “Foreclosures Up in 75% of Top U.S. Metro Areas“:
July 29 (Reuters) – Foreclosures rose in three of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year’s first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.
Unemployment was the main culprit driving foreclosure actions on more than 1.6 million properties, the company said.
“We’re not going to see meaningful, sustainable home price appreciation while we’re seeing 75 percent of the markets have increases in foreclosures,” RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga said in an interview.
“We’re not going to see real price appreciation probably until 2013,” Sharga said. “We don’t see a double dip in housing, but we think it’s going to be a long painful recovery for the next three years.”
Curiously to me, it seems that no matter what the data, no one interviewed ever says that real estate prices will decline. Even in 2007 and 2008, those confronted with the foreclosure numbers would say that the market will slow down, or prices may not go up as quickly or the market is stabilizing, but never do they say that prices will go down. I said it then, and I will say it now. Prices will continue to fall.