While there is no clear-cut answer to the question of bank-owned RE held off the market, there are plenty of reasons to believe that we have only seen a fraction of available inventory for sale. Who is holding this inventory and why?
The Bloomberg article (posted earlier on this thread) states that banks are holding onto inventory. You can contact that reporter at [email protected] maybe he'll explain how he reached that conclusion. His stated source is:
US Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr307/q307tab4.html As you can see from that table (which gives the break-down HereWeGo wanted), 17.89 million homes sit vacant. Of those, 2 million are for sale. Whether the bank owns them or not, I find it unsettling.
One interesting table is this, which shows that the vacancy rate is the highest since 1960. Between 2004 and 2007 the vacancy rate jumped 50%. Gee, what else happened between 2004 and 2007? SOMEBODY is holding those empty homes. Builders? Banks? Individuals? Who knows. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr307/q307tab1.html
