About 12 million U.S. homeowners owe more than their homes are worth, compared with 6.6 million at the end of last year and slightly more than 3 million at the close of 2006, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
Will this end anytime soon? Not likely. The following charts are from Calculated Risk. Click on the image for a larger image.
Inventories are still sky in in absolute numbers:
And in months of available supply:
As a result, prices are dropping like a stone:
Now ask yourself this question: are people going to buy more or fewer homes right now? The job market has been tanking all year (and has been dropping year over year for far longer):
And unemployment has been rising:
Oh yeah -- the credit markets are in complete turmoil making it really hard to get a loan right now.
