“Banks own 530 homes in this ZIP code (Pittsburg’s 94565) but there are only 15 on the market,” said [Paul Staley, president of Staley and MacArthur Real Estate Services] “It creates a hyper-competitive situation.”

So, since Pittsburg hasn’t ever been mentioned on those top 10 foreclosure lists, we have a couple of questions.

1. Is Pittsburg not on those lists because of this backlog? Is it an atypical situation?
2. Is Pittsburg not on those lists because the hard-hit areas just have that many more foreclosures sitting on the sidelines, that a mere 3% of foreclosures being on the market are drowning that market? Is Pittsburg closer to the real showing of foreclosures vs. REO in all areas?

If it’s option number two, holy shit. The housing problem is up to 35 times worse than you’re hearing about.

I’m guessing the real number is somewhere in between the two options. Actually, I’m hoping the real number is somewhere in between the two options. The worse option is that Pittsburg is atypical in the other way, and it’s got a much smaller ratio of foreclosures vs. REO than other, harder hit areas. If it’s this, then <3% of foreclosures are on the market, and the problem is so ridiculously astronomical the numbers involved wont even make sense unless you can express them in scientific notation.

Tags: depression 2.0, failout, holy fuck, total cockup, trouble in paradise, we're fucked, wild speculation

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 20:20.