The housing market is beginning to show signs of stabilzation as reports that home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose in December for the seventh consecutive month. Housing has been at the center of the recession since the beginning as loans deteriorated and homes were repossessed.
The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index rose by 0.3 percent from November to December, exceeding expectations. Still there is much to contend with, diminished property values, continued foreclosures and the impending end of Federal Reserve all challenge the market’s return to health.
Three million homes across the nation will be repossessed by financial institutions for the year as job losses make loan payments impossible for many families. The 2010 prediction breaks the record for most annual repossessions with 2009 having 2.82 million. Families looking to abandon their loans and sell their homes with a highly reduced pricetag are even unable as a result of the dire state of the market.
The administration has worked to ease the housing trouble by extending a tax-credit for first-time homebuyers to current owners, but even that extension will only last until the end of April.
Whether these minor advances in the home market will be able to sustain the retraction of the government supports remains to be seen.
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