Reply #17: Housing market slump deepens [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_4394242

There's more bad news this week for the state's flagging housing market.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors yesterday today reported the lowest August home sales volume since 1995, and the largest year-over-year price decline (6.1 percent) for one month since January 1993.

Furthermore, ForeclosuresMass.com is coming out with news tomorrow that 1,812 foreclosures were initiated in Massachusetts last month, up 72 percent from August 2005 and the highest one-month total since the Web site began tracking foreclosure filings in 2003.

When will it end?

Not anytime soon, according to Larissa Duzhansky, an economist at Waltham-based Global Insight.

"It doesn't seem like things are going to pick up in the next year or so," Duzhansky said. "I feel like the market is still overvalued, and you have ... high mortgage rates. When you put all of that together, there's no room for it to improve."

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