Shadow Inventory may take Years to Clear

Shadow Inventory are houses that need to be sold, that want to be sold, but the owner of the house has basically given up on selling it untill situations improve with the housing market.

Say it is a couple like myself and my wife who own a 1-bedroom condo and want to buy a house. However, we are underwater on our condo, so we are trapped there untill the market improves. Even though we desperatly want to move up to a larger house and have the income and credit to do so, the condo is an albatross.

As soon as prices improve, that condo will be going up on the market, making it one of many shadow inventory properties waiting to be sold. It is not listed now in current supply, but it is lurking in the shadows waiting to join the supply as soon as economically possible.

Check out this blurb about Shadow inventory below...

If you thought the U.S. housing market is showing any signs of improvement, a
new report by New York City-based Fitch Ratings puts the damper on that view.

Fitch says seven million homes in the "shadows" will take 40 months to
clear.

The agency defines the shadow supply of properties as loans that
are delinquent, in foreclosure, or real-estate-owned (REO) by the servicer.
Fitch says based on recent liquidation trends, it will take at least 3 ½ years
to clear this existing distressed inventory.

DSNews.com reports that
according to the ratings agency, the number of months between the date of the
borrower's last payment and the date of liquidation has steadily increased over
the past several years, and is now at more than 18 months on average.

Fitch says that is the highest figure on record.

Clearly there is a ton of inventory on the market, but even more awaits in the shadows. This blog will continue on untill the housing market returns to normal and my condo is sold. Housing Fear is still alive!

HousingFear Humor

Ben Bernanke’s Worst Nightmare: Chairman Ron Paul

There is a great article written in written in the New American discussing the very real possibility that Ron Paul will be Chairman of the Subcommittee for Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology.

Paul is currently the ranking member of the House Subcommittee for Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology and is, therefore, in line to become chairman of the subcommittee when the 112th Congress commences. If he does indeed assume the chairmanship, “Paul said his first priority will be to open up the books of the Federal Reserve to the American people,” “We need to create transparency there. To see what it is they are buying and lending, and who it is they are dealing with,” Paul said.

Auditing the Fed is only the beginning, as one might expect from the author of End the Fed. Carney writes that Paul told NetNet, “I will approach that committee like no one has ever approached it because we’re living in times like no one has ever seen.” Among his other objectives: using subcommittee hearings to educate the public about Austrian economists’ view of the business cycle, namely that it is a result of central banks’ shenanigans rather than something inherent in the free market, and auditing the US gold reserves in preparation for monetary reform, either by legalizing competing currencies or by returning to the gold standard (or both). Also on his agenda is scrutiny of the International Monetary Fund and other global financial institutions, probably as part of monetary reform.

For people like me who live and breath this stuff this, I feel like I am on cloud nine. This is going to be the most entertaining, groundbreaking, and possibly game changing next 2 years in American financial history.

An Audit of the Federal Reserve, Return to the Gold Standard. These are things that will return America to the constitution and possibly save this country from bankruptcy.

RON PAUL is a patriot, an American hero, and I cannot wait to watch him make some real waves in Washington.