Economist: Foreclosure Property for Sale Will Continue to Rise
Christopher Thornberg, one of the top economists who predicted the crisis in the housing market, said that the number of foreclosure property for sale will continue to increase. At the fourth annual conference of Newwest.net, Thornberg said that the economic recovery has started but it will be a long way before it stabilizes and achieves a total recovery.
He pointed out that housing prices will drop further and more foreclosures will come in which may result to a shaky economy for years. Thornberg of Beacon Economics was one of the economists who predicted the onslaught of the housing crisis and its devastating consequences.
He predicted that recovery in Montana would be a slow one, adding that a near recession would occur by 2011 because the problems that resulted to the financial crisis have not actually been fixed.
He said that the unemployment rate will drop, albeit at a slow pace, and will reach 8 percent by 2012. He also said that the short-term prognosis for the state’s economy is not very good. He pointed out that there could be an improvement in the forecast only if the dollar value continues to drop to boost the export industry.
But he stressed that the major factor that could really create a true recovery comes from healthy consumers. These are people who have enough savings, have manageable debts and lives in areas with no or few foreclosure property for sale.
Thornberg likens the aggressive government programs to stimulate the economy and the housing market to a tourniquet in which it only stabilizes but does not puts an end to the healing process. He said that Montana has performed better compared with other states during the recession and the housing market collapse. He pointed out that Montana is a stable state compared with others in the Rocky Mountain region.
For this year, Montana posted an unemployment rate of 7 percent compared with the 10 percent jobless rate nationwide and 9 percent rate in Idaho.
According to market data, Montana lost about 4,400 jobs in the construction industry. But industry experts pointed out that the job losses are significantly lower compared to other places in the country.
Additionally, the median home price in the state is relatively stable at $220,000. It is however expected that a million foreclosure property for sale would soon hit the market, probably in 2010.
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- MBA: Number of Cheap Foreclosed Properties to Keep Rising
- Southern Nevada to Have More Repossessed Houses
- Fed: Foreclosed Property on Sale Undermines Western Recovery
