Daily Real Estate News  |  October 9, 2008Housing Inventory Tightens in September

The number of homes for sale in the 28 markets tracked by online real estate company ZipRealty fell 1.6 percent in September.

Overall, the September inventory is down 7 percent from a year ago in the Zip Realty-tracked metro markets. Zip's accounting includes only homes listed in multiple-listing services and many foreclosed homes aren’t included in those databases.

Barclays Capital estimates there are 811,000 bank-owned homes in the U.S., up from 129,000 two years ago, and predicts that the total will rise 60 percent before peaking late next year.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, James R. Hagerty (10/09/2008)