“Stabilization is important not only to the housing market, but to the economic recovery as a whole,” Greenspan said today in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Home prices will have to rise unequivocally and perhaps by 10 percent or more before signs of a full-fledged housing recovery become unambiguous.”
Home values in the U.S. fell during the fourth quarter as mounting foreclosures sidelined buyers who think prices may decline further. The median price of a single-family home dropped from a year earlier in 71 of 152 metropolitan areas tracked by the National Association of Realtors, the group said yesterday.
The number of homes in foreclosure in December rose to a record 2.2 million, according to Lender Processing Services Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida. Including foreclosures and late payments, there were 6.87 million non-current mortgages, the company said.
Best U.S. Housing Markets 2011
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