First American Corelogic, a national real estate data and predictive analytics firm reported on Thursday that the inventory of REOs and homes facing imminent foreclosure that had not yet hit the market, the “Shadow Inventory,” is thought to be as high as 1.7 homes:
“Together, total inventory of unseen and marketed properties comes to 5.5 million units as of September 2009, an 11.1 months’ supply of homes.
First American CoreLogic says this indicates that while the visible months’ supply has decreased and is beginning to approach more normal levels, adding in the pending supply reveals there is still quite a bit of inventory that will impact the housing market for the next few years.
Just how big of an impact the shadow inventory makes will depend on whether it hits the market in large fell swoops or makes its way out of the darkness in steady, manageable streams.”
Once again, we will see. More foreclosures = more inventory. More inventory = lower prices. We’ll be watching the foreclosure filings carefully here in Ocean City, Maryland for signs of the effects of “shadow inventory” and it’s effect on the Ocean City Maryland real estate marketplace, “for sale” inventory and it’s effect on Ocean City Maryland area real estate pricing.
The full article–
http://www.dsnews.com/articles/first-american-puts-shadow-inventory-at-17-million-2009-12-17
