Per data from the United States Census Bureau, there were 128 million housing units in the United States at the end of 2007. Of that number 75.2 million units were owner occupied. Data from Realtytrac.com shows nearly 1.3 million households received one or more foreclosure notices during 2007. Foreclosures represent 1.72% of all owner occupied homes. Why is this percentage irrelevant? This is so because most homes are not for sale today. This is why Real Estate Brokers, Appraisers and Tax Assessors all base fair market value on homes for sale now and homes that have recently sold, but not homes that are not on the market currently. The National Association of Realtors has data that show 5,652,000 existing home sales in 2007. Doing the math foreclosures in 2007 equaled 23% of the existing homes that were actually sold.
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