“Shadow Housing Inventory” Put At 1.7 Million in 3Q According to First American CoreLogic

CAR reported today that a company that tracks "Phantom Inventory" places the number at 1.7 million up alomst 30% over the prior year's 1.1 million homes. Corelogic counts the amount of "Phantom Inventory" is the number of homes that banks currently hold in inventory but not yet placed on the market including homeowners that are 90 days delinquent on their mortgages. This number represents the a 3.3 month supply at the current rate of sales.

Visible inventory in September of 2009 stood at 3.8 million units. This represents a 7 month supply down from 10 months a year ago. The total unsold inventory which, (I assume) includes short sales and normal sales is estimated to be 5.5 million units relatively flat from last years 5.7 million units. This number represents 11 months supply down a month from the prior year.

According to Corelogic while the numbers appear to be normal and stabilizing, the market inventory will get worse before it will get better.