Housing recession expected to hit bottom in 2012

The real estate market is continuing its steady decline well into 2011, according to Zillow.com. The percentage of houses with negative equity has risen to 28.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011. In addition, home values were down more than 8 percent over the past year. When a homeowner owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth, they are in negative equity.

"Home value declines are currently equal to those we experienced during the darkest days of the housing recession. With accelerating declines during the first quarter, it is unreasonable to expect home values to return to stability by the end of 2011," said Zillow chief economist Dr. Stan Humphries.

Home values fell 3 percent in the first quarter, reaching a total decline of 29.5 percent since June of 2006, according to the source, creating good prices for moving families. Foreclosure rates rose as the nationwide foreclosure bans were lifted by banks and one out of 1,000 homes in the U.S. was lost to creditors. Experts to not believe the market will begin its recovery until 2012, according to the source.

"The latest data through April shows a continued increase in the proportion of distressed sales that are taking hold in markets nationwide," Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics at Clear Capital, said to the Memphis Business Journal. 

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