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Rising numbers of real-estate owned properties (REOs) and delinquencies are creating excess supply in housing markets across the country, putting additional pressure on prices already under stress from the post-tax credit drop in demand, according to the August report from Metrostudy, a leading provider of secondary and primary market data.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan created turmoil in the real estate industry when he said on CNN Sunday that a restoration of the homebuyer tax credit is "not off the table" and that it is "too soon to say" whether the administration's credit tax credit, which expired April 30, will be revived.

After admitting twice that the July home sales numbers released last week were "clearly worse than we expected," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan did not rule out the prospect that the Administration will revive the homebuyer tax credit that expired April 30.

A national survey of economist and experts released yesterday found that confidence in the housing economy weakening and only one out of five predicts positive price growth this year. However, the survey of 107 economists, real estate experts, investment and market strategists was conducted during the first half of August−before the National Association of Realtors released its July sales report showing existing home sales fell a record 25.5 percent year-over-year.

The record 25.5 percent drop in July home sales reported yesterday contributed to a record level of unsold inventories of homes for sale that could have a more serious long term impact on housing markets than the sales collapse.

Last month, first-time homebuyers' share of the housing market fell lower than it has been since 2008 when the first-time version of the homebuyer tax credit took effect.

Homeowners paid a median of $1,000 in monthly housing costs in 2009, compared to $808 for renters, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Homeowners have turned more pessimistic about near-term prospects for home values in their local housing markets than they have been in the past three quarters. One out of three now believes home values in their local markets have not yet reached a bottom and more than a quarter (28 percent) expect home values in will decrease over the next six months.

Another provider of national credit data reported today that mortgage delinquencies have been falling during the first half of the year, suggesting that the housing sector is beginning to stabilize.

In dramatic opening remarks delivered to the conference organized by the Treasury Department and HUD to discuss the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner blamed the two government-sponsored enterprises for "avoidable failures" that made the financial crisis worse and resulted in huge losses for taxpayers.

Year-over-year home prices increased in June for the fifth consecutive month, but at a much lower rate than April and May, reported CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI).

Fannie Mae's economists see 2.5 percent overall growth in the second half of 2010 but forecast housing will be flat for the remainder of the year due to a greater than expected number of sales being pulled forward into the second quarter by the homebuyer tax credit.

Yesterday Navy Federal Credit Union in Vienna, Virginia announced that it expects to close a billion dollars' worth of mortgages between July and August. Last year, Navy Federal, which happens to be the world's largest credit union, originated mortgages totaling $6.2 billion, a new record. With the help of record low interest rates, it plans to break $7 billion this year.

Wire service reports on RealtyTrac's July foreclosure filings contributed to an existing atmosphere of investor fear that drove stock futures down before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange this morning.

Another foreclosure listing site reported today that foreclosures are declining at an accelerating rate as subprime resets abate and unemployment, though high, remains relatively unchanged.

Friday the Treasury Department issued its second monthly "scorecard" on the Housing Affordability Modification Program (HAMP and deep in the news release's eighth paragraph was an asterisk that may determine whether the $50 billion program was worth its cost.

Though home values in the United States continued to decline in the second quarter of 2010, the percentage of single-family homeowners with mortgages who are underwater fell to 21.5 percent from 23.3 percent in the first quarter and 23 percent one year ago., according to the Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Apartment rents have made an about face during the first half of the year and they'll continue to rise if vacancies tighten as predicted as more and more households become renters.

The number of price-reduced homes on the market increased 5.3 percent in July as compared to June, according to a monthly review of MLS-listed properties within 26 of the country's largest housing markets conducted by the national online real estate brokerage ZipRealty.

The number of price-reduced homes on the market increased 5.3 percent in July as compared to June, according to a monthly review of MLS-listed properties within 26 of the country's largest housing markets conducted by the national online real estate brokerage ZipRealty.

Despite reports that sellers were dropping prices following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit April 30, a new national report found that prices rose an average of 7.9 percent in the second quarter over the first, though price increases on listings slowed in June.

Pending home sales in June sank below the all-time basement level they reached in May as fall-out from the end of the tax credit continues to traumatize housing markets across the county.

Nearly half, or 48 percent, of those participating in an online survey released today said they want the Federal tax credit for home buyers back to re-stimulate the housing market.

The BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill will cost homeowners n in the coastal counties along the Gulf Coast communities from $648 million over one year and to as much as $3 billion over five years, according to a report today from CoreLogic.

Recent gains in home values are temporary and markets are poised for a 5 percent dip during the balance of 2010.

While foreclosures fell in nine out of the nation's ten highest foreclosure markets during the past six months, they are increasing almost everywhere else in the nation as the changing causes of mortgage defaults bring foreclosures home to hundreds of communities.

With the number of final mortgage modifications below target and criticism mounting that it's not making a significant difference in the war to stem foreclosures, the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (*HAMP) is asking the advertising wizards of Madison Avenue for help.

Prices on homes ready to be occupied fell an average of 6.8 percent between May and June, but prices for damaged foreclosed properties increased by 5.9 percent during the same period, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey of Real Estate Market Conditions.

The financial regulatory reform bill signed into law the week could result in more accurate home valuations, higher appraisal costs, faster closings, more completed transactions and maybe even higher prices, according to critics of a controversial quasi-governmental regulation that the legislation eliminated.

Despite the difficult economy and high unemployment rates, the vast majority of homeowners who modified their mortgages under the Administration's Housing Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) are staying current on their payments, surprising experts and far exceeding previous modification efforts.