20 Depressing Facts About the Housing Market
The U.S. housing market is, in a word, "sobering." That's the official summation offered up by Eric S. Belsky, managing director of the 
Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University upon today's release of the exhaustive State of The Nation's Housing: 2011 report.
Housing By the Numbers
Each year the JCHS pulls together a detailed compilation of housing data that analyzes everything from the pace of home sales to the amount of equity (or lack thereof) homeowners have. And indeed, there isn't a whole lot of cheer to be found in this year's exhaustive report. Even the rare glimmer of good news -- first-time home buyers can shop in one of the most affordable markets in decades -- is a function of some all too obvious and painful bad news: Increased affordability is largely a function of cratering home prices (and low mortgage rates) rather than big gains in household income.
Here are 20 sobering statistics culled from the JCHS' State of the Nation's Housing: 2011. Unless noted, all data is for 2010.
- 15: Percent of homeowners underwater (mortgage balance exceeds home's market value)
- 11.1 million: Number of homeowners with negative equity
- $12.4 trillion: Total loss in real household wealth, 2006-2010
- $6.3 trillion: Total real home equity, end of 2010
- $8.6 trillion: Total loss in real home equity since 2006 market peak
- 2.2 million: Estimated number of mortgages in the foreclosure pipeline
- 67: Percent of homeowners in foreclosure who have not made a mortgage payment for at least one year
- 3.9 million: Increase in number of renters since 2004
- 74: percent of renters in early 2011 who say ownership makes more financial sense than renting
- 4.1: Percent decline in home prices in 2010
- 2: Metro areas out of 20 tracked by the Case-Shiller index that did not experience price declines in the 12 months through January 2011
- 30.7: Estimated percent of homes that sold for less than previous purchase price (2009: 25.4 percent)
- 14: Percent decline in new home sales (fifth straight year of double digit declines)
- 18: Percent of median household income needed to buy median priced home (2005: 32 percent)
- 9: Percent of median household income needed to purchase median-priced house in Cape Coral, FL in 2010 (2007: 38 percent)
- 38: Percent of median household income needed to purchase median-priced house in San Francisco in 2010 (2007: 76 percent)
- 17: Percent of households spending more than half of their income on housing
- 9: Percent of new loans with down payments below 10 percent
- 27.4: Percent of homes bought with all cash in 2010 (2009: 19.8 percent)
- 66.9: Percent of U.S. households that own a home (2004 peak: 69 percent)
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