Staiger, the adjunct professor at Carney Business School, says homes staying on the market for months or years at a time is becoming the new normal in American real estate.
Purchasing a home was once a cornerstone of the American experience, he says. It was viewed as a sign of financial maturity and stability, as well as a way to build wealth. However, during the subprime meltdown, many Americans lost fortunes through real estate. Now credit is hard to come by and the decades-old belief in the safety of real estate is dead. The purchase of a home no longer holds a sacred place in American society. "You have a repositioning of the American home within the persona of the American culture," Staiger says.
Complicating the difficulty in selling homes is the glut of foreclosed housing that remains on the market. Until that excess supply is removed, sellers will remain at a steep disadvantage.
"It's going to take us two, two-and-a-half years to work through this excess supply, and the banks need to finish foreclosing," Staiger says. "It doesn't allow the market to clear."
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John Tebbetts of CA 11:36AM March 05, 2012