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The housing market in the Treasure Valley has yet to bottom out, despite government incentives and record low interest rates for buyers.
“You read a lot of national data that says we have hit the bottom of the market,” said Charlie Nate, president of IdahoDataProviders.com, a Boise company that measures foreclosures in the Valley. “That’s just not the case.”
The month-to-month numbers weren’t bad. In Ada and Canyon counties, December foreclosure rates fell 9 percent from a month earlier, Nate said.
But the flow of distressed properties entering the housing market will keep pushing inventories up and prices down this year, Nate said.
High unemployment rates and a worsening default rate are partly to blame. So are the number of homeowners who are “upside-down” on their mortgages, which means they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, Nate said.
About 30 percent of all borrowers are “upside-down,” he said.
During 2009, there were 8,639 new foreclosures filed in Ada and Canyon counties, a 66 percent increase over 2008.
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