Housing is near Bottom

Freddie Mac CEO: Housing Is Near Bottom

The inventory of foreclosed houses still hampers the recovery of the housing sector, but overall, the U.S. housing market appears to be at or near bottom, Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman told the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday.

He predicted that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate would remain between 5 percent and 6 percent through 2010.

"The big downside risk to all this is a large wave of homes now in foreclosure potentially hitting the market at prices that are destructive," Haldeman said.

Source: Reuters News, Soyoung Kim (01/26/2010)

This is the common theme for the Galveston market. Fortunately, we did not have the volume of investor purchases in 2005 - 2007 as California, Florida, and Nevada which created many of the foreclosures in these resort markets. Overall, our foreclosure result is minimal as compared to other markets.