The assignment should be presented as a Journal opinion article and Essay - 2

The assignment should be presented as a Journal opinion article and address an economic issue of current interest to Wall Street Journal readers - Essay Example This is according to the National Association of Realtors monthly survey on real- estate agents. On the other hand, foreclosing has incorporated selling out at a discount rate to traditional homes. This is because of lenders’ motivation to cut the price and in order to sell fast. In addition, the maintenance of these homes is not up to standard. As a result, a foreclosed property sale can bring down the ‘comps’ involved in appraising the value of other homes being sold in the neighborhood. A survey carried out indicates that, sales from previously owned homes have gone down during the last eight months. The sales were down 7.5% a year earlier, resulting to five consecutive months where sales have dropped below the year earlier level (Timiraos, 2014). Moreover, some of the decline in the existing home sales is because of shrinking supply of distressed homes. To the home sellers and builders, this is good news, unlike for the investors or real estate agents whose living was depended on recycling these properties onto the market. Although the home prices no longer depreciate, traditional sellers have been reluctant in listing their homes for sale. In addition, the building of new homes is still low. The impact of this is that, the homes in the market are not many. The effect of this is that, prices are very high due to the high demand but the homes are less in supply. To the homeowners, this is a great deal but unwelcoming to anyone in search for a house and currently does not possess one. Therefore, even as home sales have decreased, monthly supply of homes is way below the highs of housing bust because there are few homes available to make a choice. The slowing effect of housing market is therefore due to a few homes available for sale, leading to high prices. These gains are the cause of homes being less affordable, particularly after mortgage rates heightened recently.