Nearly
6 Million Foreclosures in Past
3 years -
3 Million More Expected in
2010CBS) In its "Where America Stands" series, CBS News is looking at a broad spectrum of issues facing this country in the new decade.
CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy report the American Dream is now a nightmare for many of the 75 million Americans who own a home.
The housing report card is ugly. In the past two years, the housing market has lost an estimated $4.9 trillion dollars, as 59 million homes have declined in value.
Nearly 1 in 4 homeowners -- 10.7 million households nationwide -- are underwater on their mortgages. They owe more than their home is now worth.
The housing market is so bad in California, that a bank demolished 16 nearly completed homes - because it was cheaper to knock them down, than to finish them.
Home building across the country is almost non-existent. In 2005, 2 million housing units were built in this country. Last year, that number dropped to nearly a quarter of that.
cnt:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/02/eveningnews/main6167610.shtml