The Specter Of Eight Million Foreclosures

From 24/7 Wall Street:

Trying to guess how many homes will be lost to foreclosure over the next several years is a fool's game. No one knows what will happen to employment. The role that the federal government will play in refinancing and buying mortgages is ill-defined.

The change in administrations in Washington may mean a change in the entire approach taken by Washington agencies which could do something to change the tide of housing prices.

According to MarketWatch, "Credit Suisse's fixed-income research team forecast that 8.1 million mortgages will be in foreclosure over the next four years, representing 16% of all mortgages."

The number is numbing and trying to cope with what it would do to the broader economy is almost beyond imagination.

There are about 120 households in the US. Fifty-five million of those are owner-occupied homes. If the forecast of eight million foreclosures is correct, 15% of all homes would be thrown into the system, almost all of them without buyers....MORE