"27 amazing statistics about the real estate market"

April Charney, Senior Attorney in Jacksonville Legal Aid's Consumer Unit and foreclosure attorney extraordinaire, has posted an article containing 27 statistics about the real estate crash on "DIRT - Real Estate Lawyers Listserv."  Some highlights:

"The number of new building permits fell to a new all-time record low in February. In fact, new building permits were 20 percent lower during February 2011 than they were in February 2010."

"As of the end of 2010, 23.1 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage owed more on their homes than their homes were worth."

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all the homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That number is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago."

"N[e]w home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005."

"Deutsche Bank is projecting that 48 percent of all U.S. mortgages could have negative equity by the end of 2011."

"According to Zillow, U.S. home prices have already fallen further during this economic downturn (26 percent) than they did during the Great Depression (25.9 percent)."

It sure is difficult to remain optimistic.

The full article may be viewed here.

Jon Rosenbloom