Cities in the Sun Belt continue to post the nation's highest foreclosure rates. According to a year-end report released by RealtyTrac Thursday, four states accounted for all top 20 metro foreclosure rates in 2009. Las Vegas, Nevada registered the nation's highest rate - more than 12 percent. California claimed nine of the 20 metros with the highest percentage of foreclosures. Florida was home to eight, with the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro area in Arizona also landing a spot on the list.
The Federal Reserve offered its most upbeat economic outlook in nearly a year at the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting Wednesday, but again voted to maintain the benchmark federal funds rate at near-zero. Policymakers also made it clear that they are sticking to their plan of pulling back from the secondary market, with the program to purchase mortgage-backed securities (MBS) coming to a close on March 31, as scheduled.
New data from Altos Research shows that housing supplies have been steadily declining for the last 16 months. The company says there are 20 percent fewer homes for sale now than there were in 2008. Some fear this decline is because banks have been holding back their repossessed properties, but Altos doesn't expect this so-called shadow inventory to result in a real estate day of reckoning in 2010 as some market observers have warned.
Starting this summer, Realtors will have access to an online real estate library with data on every property in the United States. Dubbed the Realtors Property Resource, this new tool is a project by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), and gives practitioners access to tax and assessment data; neighborhood, school, and demographic information; and maps and trends.
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