More bad news in the housing market. Spring and summer are usually top marketing months for home sales, but the slide still continues to levels as low as 8 months ago. Despite record low mortgage interest rates, according to Market Watch, unsold new homes are at 40 year lows.
Hard hit are areas like Nantucket, where the first six months of 2010 has seen twice as many foreclosures sales as 2009 according to CNN Money. Sales are made worse, with banks wanting to mortgage only high ticket properties of $1.5 million or more, leaving the middle class out of the running for mortgages in this area.
Other parts of the country have been affected since the $8000 government tax credit ended last month. In fact, pending sales are down significantly from one year ago in the Midwest, and prices are mirroring those of August 2008 according to St.Paul Real Estate as a new wave of foreclosures are beginning to hit the market.
This continued downturn in home sales, especially new home sales, has a spin-off effect on labor in construction, building supplies, and home furnishings keeping unemployment high in those occupations related to the industry.
