More Than 8.3 Million U.S. Mortgages Are Underwater -Statistics are a phony business

We can easily assume that double the amount are under water as statistics claim as banks hold back a multiple of homes under foreclosure in order to keep artificial higher prices. When we saw the real prices and banks would have to mark down how many tril. do you think Bernanke needs to print more.
That's a phony business in general as banks cook books most of the time but actually a now demand discount with a built new pricing would rather show prices down rather 35-40 %. The problem is that banks keep pushing the economy to the abysm as they are responsible for this mess in the first place but even do not give the lower rates to customers and even push them into trouble as most are aggressively reducing credit limits on consumers ( especially credit card). That will push many people even closer to foreclosures that's the freaking irony. Bankers are stupid morons especially the one's with elite degree's as I happened to had the chance to learn myself working for the big names in investment banking.
When the going gets tough the Harvard MBA does rather even more wrong seems to be the equation - they are pretty good swimming with the crowd but that's about it.

Anyway these days do not believe any statistics as even Mr Change will be tempted to use statistics which show a better picture than reality. Since the phony government statistics have been introduced by the Clinton admin. and you know they all sit again in the white House.

Excerpt

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- More than 8.3 million U.S. mortgage holders owed more on their loans in the fourth quarter than their property was worth as the recession cut home values by $2.4 trillion last year, First American CoreLogic said.

An additional 2.2 million borrowers will be underwater if home prices decline another 5 percent, First American, a Santa Ana, California-based seller of mortgage and economic data, said in a report today. Households with negative equity or near it account for a quarter of all mortgage holders.

“We have way too much supply and not enough demand,” Sam Khater, senior economist for First American, said in an interview. “People aren’t going to purchase a home as long as prices keep falling, and someone who is worried about their job isn’t going to purchase a home either.”

Prices in 20 U.S. cities fell 18.5 percent in December from a year earlier, the fastest drop on record, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Sales of previously owned homes, which account for about 90 percent of the market, fell in January to the lowest since 1997, and new-home purchases plunged to the lowest since records began in 1963, the National Association of Realtors and Commerce Department said.

The total value of residential properties in the U.S. fell to $19.1 trillion by the end of 2008, down from $21.5 trillion a year earlier, First American said. California lost more than $1.2 trillion in value last year, accounting for roughly half of the national decline in housing values.