sdduuuuude is absolutely correct, this is going to happen. As for the carrying costs of all these dead assets, well the bailouts will help. They may choose to rent some of them out or do loan reworks that basically turn “homeowners’ into renters. There will also probably be some mysterious fires from time to time that take care of some of the unoccupied ones. Home prices may come down but it won’t be because of these foreclosures. The values of homes must be kept high! It’s just like the Soviet Union pretending that their harvest are at record yields while all of the store shelves are empty; the party line doesn’t reflect reality, everyone knows it but we just keep playing along. Be brave, comrades!