Over 47% (66% in California) of all home sales in December were short sales or foreclosures, up from 44.5% in November. CNBC’s Diana Olick has more on this and other real estate headlines.

Source: Atlanta Post – Brittany Hutson The country is still reeling from residential and commercial real-estate properties falling into foreclosure, but the banks are going to have even messier plates due to recent reports that a number of churches are struggling to keep their doors open. According to The Wall Street Journal, many churches borrowed… Read More

Source: LA Times An industry consultant’s survey shows that 138 lodgings were in foreclosure last year, up from 62 in 2009. The firm expects the trend to continue through the first half of this year. The number of California hotels in foreclosure more than doubled in 2010 to 138 properties, according to a new real… Read More

From CNN Money… Home prices took a shockingly steep plunge on a monthly basis, an indication that the housing market could be on the verge of — if it’s not already in — a double-dip slump. Prices in 20 key cities fell 1.3% in October from a month earlier, an annualized decline of 15%, according… Read More

492: The number of days since the average borrower in foreclosure last made a mortgage payment. Banks can’t foreclose fast enough to keep up with all the people defaulting on their mortgage loans. That’s a problem, because it could make stiffing the bank even more attractive to struggling borrowers. In recent months, the number of… Read More

Via DSNews.com Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, says he expects long-term mortgage interest rates to hold below the 5 percent threshold throughout 2011, as key macroeconomic drivers provide a backdrop that supports a continued, albeit gradual, recovery in the housing and mortgage markets. In November, fixed mortgage rates dropped to their lowest level… Read More

Source: DS News Americans continue to grapple with uncertainty about the housing market, with 58 percent of U.S. adults expecting recovery to be at least another two years away, according to the results of a new survey conducted by Trulia and RealtyTrac, which tracks homebuyers’ attitudes toward foreclosed homes. One in five consumers believe it… Read More

Lastly, Fitch Ratings has stuck their neck out and issued actual numbers of homes that are represented in the $470B shadow inventory. Credit rating agencies and other statistical companies have been hesitant to release their research on how many homes are represented in the massive shadow inventory numbers. It was much easier to simply state… Read More

The first major story we’ll cover is the fact that some daunting statistics came out this week. During the Great Depression era (5 year span from 1929-1933) home values plummeted by a record breaking 25.9%. This was during a massive unemployment state where millions ate their meals at government sponsored soup kitchens to survive. We’ve… Read More