“The housing crash is not over… This lull in foreclosures sales has resulted in the price gains in the past few months. Foreclosure sales will increase, and home prices will resume their decline by early 2010 as mortgage servicers figure out who will not qualify for a modification.
“With so many homeowners so deeply underwater and unemployment very high and on the rise, the foreclosure crisis will continue putting more pressure on home prices… Our house price outlook is dependent on two other key assumptions, including a more stable job market by early 2010 and that interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages remain well below 6 percent throughout the year.”
– Mark Zandi, chief economist at at Moody’s Economy.com, who predicts that home prices will hit bottom in the third quarter of 2010.