Offside Owners

One reason existing home sales are so anemic is because few homeowners can afford to sell. There are 75 million owner-occupied households; 10 million are underwater and 10 million have insufficient equity in their homes to afford a down payment on a new home. 27% of all owner-occupied homes are effectively off limits. As such, the 5 million expected home sales this year, 10% of the available stock, is good.