According to the National Association of Home Builders, its residential market index which monitors builder confidence dropped by two points in March, back to the January level of 15 points. Index numbers below 50 means negative outlook for the housing market. The index has not gone beyond 50 since April 2006.

The 477 home builders surveyed said they are getting doubtful about improvements in new home sales because of the still fierce competition from foreclosures. They said the pace of foreclosures has been declining compared to the previous month, but the volume is still higher than foreclosures in 2009.

Bob Jones, chairman of NAHB, said that the continued flow of low-priced distressed homes is pushing down new-house appraisals and is making it difficult for homeowners to sell their homes so they can move up.

BMO Capital Markets economist Jennifer Lee said that the home building industry has again entered another turbulent phase after experiencing some stability over the past few months. Projections of foreclosures list growth, lack of substantial job creation and the expiration of federal supports to the housing market are making builders concerned about their situation.

The builder outlook even pushed down the share prices of a group of 12 builders that include Pulte Homes and D.R. Horton.

The decline in the number of prospective buyers indicated the waning impact of the federal tax credits. With unemployment rates rising in many places, prospective buyers have opted not to pursue their home buying plans. The gauge for prospective buyers dropped in March to 10, the lowest point over a 12-month period.

In addition, the measure for expectations for sales over the next 6 months also dropped to 24, again the lowest point since the middle of last year. This measure was 27 in February.

Builder confidence declined in the Midwest from 13 to 10 and in the South from 19 to 18 while it rose in the Northeast from 18 to 23 and in the West from 14 to 15.

According to Bloomberg, the national unemployment rate is expected to drop from 9.7 percent in January to 9.5 percent at the end of the year. It is hoped that the projected slight improvement in the employment situation would also lessen the effect of foreclosures list prices on the home building industry.

According to a survey carried out by Silicon Valley Bank, at least 10 vineyards and wineries in Napa are expected to change ownership this year and next year through distressed or foreclosure sales.

The bank, which serves mostly high-end wineries, said that seven percent of its clients have troubled finances and that 71 percent are having difficulty in finding credit. According to Bill Stevens, head of the bank’s Saint Helena wine division, 250 clients who are winemakers are reporting their worst situation in 20 years. Stevens added that the newer ones are experiencing the highest level of difficulties.

According to Robert Nicholson, land values in the valley, which hosts about 400 wine producers, have plunged by 15 percent from their peak level in 2007. The decline in values has prevented producers from refinancing their loans or making new loans.

Over the one-year period ended January 2010, the total number of vineyards and wineries that have defaulted on their loans and are expected to enter the Napa foreclosure list this year has risen four times to 18.

As consumers work out their budget and shift to cheaper wines, the dollar value of retail wine sales in the country has decreased by 3.3 percent in 2009 to $29 billion after soaring every year since 1991. The dollar value plunged despite the 1.9-percent rise in sales volume to 323 million wine cases in 2009 because consumers purchased cheaper brands, according to a report from Gomberg, Fredrikson and Associates.

According to officers of Rabobank Nederland, which finances agribusinesses, sales of premium wines – priced above $15 – fell last year by 10 percent, and sales of ultra-premium labels – priced above $30 – dropped by more than 15 percent.

Bill Harlan, owner of Oakville winery, said that foreclosures in the wine industry will surge this year. Last December, he has acquired the neighboring Diamond Oaks winery whose owner Dinesh Maniar was hit with two foreclosure filings.

Rob McMillan, founder of the Silicon Valley Bank wine division, said that over 30 wineries in California have been listed for sale. Some of these were new to the wine industry; others have high levels of debt and have high risks of entering the Napa Valley foreclosure list for vineyards and wineries.

Based on a report released by the California State Northridge Valley Economic Research Center, the number of default notices filed in January this year fell by 4 percent from the previous month to 972 notices. It also marked a stunning 41-percent drop from the 1,644 notices sent to homeowners in January 2009.

Additionally, completed foreclosures dropped to only 507 units, a significant decrease of 34 percent compared to December 2009 and an 11-percent drop from January 2009.

In part because of the drop in foreclosure activity, home prices in the Valley improved, prompting a lot of buyers to make their purchases before prices rise to high levels again.

The home price median for homes sold in January surged to $398,750, a sharp jump of 13 percent compared to the median in January last year. Another good news for market observers is the increase in home sales year-over-year for the 17th straight month.

According to William Roberts, director of the research center, the declining foreclosed listing pace in the Valley and the increase in prices and sales indicate that the housing market is starting to rise up from its troubles.

Total home sales in January rose to 1,108 units, a 13-percent increase from 982 units sold in January 2009, although a 34-percent drop from the 1,687 units sold in December 2009. Roberts, however, explained the December-January sales decline as normal based on sales data over the years.

Members of the Southland Regional Association of Realtors also affirmed the reported sales and prices increases. Jim Link, chief executive officer of the association, said that the rising trend started in March last year.

Based on Southland data, the January 2010 median sales price of $380,000 marked a 9-percent increase from the January 2009 median of 359,000 but it also marked a 20-percent drop from the December 2009 median price of $400,000. The median price for condos also increased from $190,000 in January 2009 to $215,000 in January this year.

According to Jim Link, if the Valley does not suffer another economic hit, the pace of foreclosed listing will continue its downward trend and will allow the market to finally recover from depressed home prices.

For many prospective foreclosure buyers, the best listings are those that offer information on a large number of foreclosed properties, those that offer detailed and helpful information on these properties and those that are updated frequently.

In short, the best listings are those that help you find the best and most affordable property you are looking for in the location you are targeting and in ways that are not too costly and not too time consuming.

You can find the best foreclosure listings online in at least three places: the websites of government agencies that deal with real estate properties, the websites of mortgage lenders and real estate companies, and the websites of paid foreclosure listings providers.

You can go to the websites of the Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Department of Agriculture. Several of these websites lead you to homesales.gov where you can make your home search. The other agencies lead you to the websites of their real estate management contractors where you can also do your home search.

These sites affiliated with the government are considered among the best because they are complete, updated and contain a large number of properties. They can afford to provide quality information because they are funded by the government.

Besides, during these times of record numbers of foreclosures, these government agencies want to hasten their sales and move all their repossessed properties and therefore make ways to facilitate home searching by prospective home buyers.

The websites of mortgage lenders are also easy to use and are updated. They offer you search options so you can narrow your search to the specific zip code you want or according to property type, list price, number of bedrooms or square footage.

The advantage of paid foreclosure listings over the government-affiliated sites and the lender-owned sites are their wider scope. These paid listings providers include foreclosures from all lenders, whether private- or public-owned.

The best paid listings are those that are frequently mentioned or listed in reviews and in articles. In some cases, the best foreclosure listings are not the largest providers, especially if you are interested in certain places only. Just remember that the best providers are those that are transparent – they deliver what they say on their websites and say what they do not deliver.

According to the Minnesota Area Association of Realtors, the number of condo short sales and condo foreclosure sales has risen by 4 percent in the final quarter last year from the same quarter in 2008.

Condo foreclosures have also affected prices, driving down the average price of condo units by 17 percent in 2009 in the 13 counties that make up the Twin Cities metro area. Total sales were also affected, rising by only 10 percent compared to sales in 2008. Condo sales followed the trend in the region, which posted a 16-percent drop in the average home price and a 17-percent increase in total home sales.

According to local realtors, the condo buildings suffering the most from the downturn are those that were built during the peak of the housing blast and after. They added that condos have always been more difficult to sell than single-family homes because the pool for potential condo buyers is smaller.

The condos entering foreclosure homes listings are mostly units purchased between the years 2005 and 2008 when condo prices peaked in the Twin Cities. In condo complexes, foreclosures lead to more foreclosures because condo owners who are left behind are forced to fork out more money to pay for building maintenance, taxes and other common bills.

The decision of lenders not to lend money to buyers of condo units in buildings with lower occupancy rates has also affected condo sales. Mortgage banker Alex Stenback said that condos typically have higher mortgage default rates, so lenders are stricter when screening condo buyers. Lenders are not only taking the risk of a borrower who fails, but also the risk of a condo developer that fails.

According to Saint Paul-based broker Teresa Boardman, total condo sales in downtown Saint Paul declined in 2009. She added that even though condo prices are still falling, there are only a few takers. She said that the average time a condo unit stays on the market is 240 days, much longer than the 177 days spent to sell all types of homes in Saint Paul.

Nevertheless, a rising number of buyers like systems engineer Jeff Dubois are still considering condo units in foreclosure homes listings because of expected developments in Saint Paul, such as light-rail transit and a minor league baseball stadium.

Last year, 419 condo units and townhomes were repossessed by banks, based on records from the Brevard County Property Appraiser Records. A foreclosure research firm said that another 568 units were in default and are in the process of getting foreclosed.

Across the U.S., over 66,000 condo units were repossessed in 2009, with another 113,000 units in serious default.

In Palm Bay and in other areas with a lot of condo and townhome foreclosures, personal devastation arising from foreclosures has not been limited to the delinquent property owners.

Even condo and townhome owners who have been paying faithfully their monthly mortgage amortizations and their housing association dues have been suffering from the foreclosed properties. According to housing researchers, about 60 percent of multifamily properties in Florida are struggling from unmaintained foreclosed units and unpaid HOA dues.

Even property owners who have rented out their townhomes or condos and have been collecting the rentals have not been paying their HOA dues, according to HOA officers.

At the 50-unit Arlington Pines townhome development in Palm Bay, only 12 unit owners have been paying their HOA dues. In financially distressed times, even the $223 monthly HOA fee at Arlington has been a big burden to pay.

According to analysts, the current foreclosed home listings in Florida are not showing the real numbers of distressed condos and townhomes in the state. Banks have not been completing their foreclosure processes on condo units and townhomes which are difficult to sell and which belong to HOAs that are tenacious in collecting HOA dues.

In the meantime, condo and townhome owners who have not chosen to walk away despite the foreclosure problems of other unit owners have been filling the gap between maintenance and utility costs and the regular HOA collections. Their monthly dues are continually raised so the HOAs can pay property insurance premiums, maintenance costs, water bills and other utilities.

Jan Bergemann, head of the homeowner advocacy organization Cyber Citizens for Justice, said that his group has been calling on lawmakers to pass legislation that would force banks to pay HOA dues and maintenance fees for their foreclosure properties.

According to Bergemann, forcing responsible unit owners to pay for properties in foreclosed home listings is not fair and can even force them also to fall into financial distress and into foreclosure.

Rob Stephany, head of the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority, said he could not believe that his city was not given any money, given that his team submitted a great application.

According to HUD spokeswoman Andrea Mead, not all applicants can be accommodated because only $2 billion was set aside for the program while applicants asked for a total of over $15 billion. She said that applications were scored based on 6 factors, the weightiest of which were level of need and proof of ability to use the funds effectively within a given period.

In the first NSP funding round last year, the city of Pittsburgh received $2 million and received another $4 million from the $60 million allocated to the state of Pennsylvania.

Tom Cummings, housing director for the URA, said that money from the first funding round was used to demolish dilapidated buildings, build affordable houses in the Hill District, establish an affordable housing program in Garfield, and buy and rehabilitate foreclosed homes in Manchester and in Beechview.

According to Terry Gillen, head of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, the rate of foreclosures list growth in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was not as high as in other cities in Florida, California or Arizona, but Pittsburgh and other older cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland have been suffering from population decline.

Unlike Pittsburgh, the city of Philadelphia asked for $58 million and was given $43.9 million. In the previous funding round, the city got $16 million and received another $4 million from the funds given to the state.

URA executive director Stephany said that the HUD probably rejected Pittsburgh application because the most distressed communities in the city have been distressed for a long time. Foreclosures in the city have also been slowing down.

In 2009, Pittsburgh had a total of 9,220 foreclosure postings, a drop of almost 8 percent from the 10,013 foreclosures filed in 2008. Of the 203 metro areas ranked by a California-based foreclosure research firm based on foreclosure rates, Pittsburgh ranked 156th.

Stephany said that the money would have been spent to fight the effects of decades of decline in certain neighborhoods and to help the neighborhoods of Sheraden and Elliott buy homes from foreclosures list and rent them out.

According to housing analysts and U.S. Treasury officials, the refusal of banks to restructure home-equity loans is among the biggest hindrances to successful loan modifications and foreclosure prevention. Treasury spokesperson Meg Reilly said that no lender holding a portion of the $1.05 trillion of home-equity debt has committed to modify second mortgages.

New York Banking Superintendent Richard Neiman, who is also a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said that the federal government should pressure banks to resolve the issue of second liens.

Joshua Rosner, analyst at New York City-based Graham Fisher, said that the major lenders Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup collectively hold second mortgages that are about $150 billion higher than the value of the properties securing them. Under current law, a second mortgage is eliminated in foreclosure unless the sales proceeds exceed the amount of the first mortgage.

The programs of the federal government to cut down real estate foreclosure listings have not been successful partly because only the first mortgage is modified, according to Scott Simon of California firm Pacific Investment Management Company. According to the Treasury Department, around 25 percent of borrowers whose mortgages were modified in 2009 have failed to sustain their monthly payments even after they have been reduced.

Rosner of Graham Fisher affirmed Simon’s statement. He added that high levels of home equity debts have prevented first-mortgage lenders to reduce principal balances to make monthly payments really affordable to borrowers.

John Taylor, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said that first-mortgage lenders are not willing to significantly reduce principal balances if second-mortgage lenders refuse to do the same.

According to foreclosure analysts, more homes will enter foreclosure this year as the employment situation continues to worsen and property values continue to fall. In the third quarter last year, 23 percent of all residential mortgages were underwater, based on a report from First American CoreLogic. Another California firm predicted that 3 million residential units will be foreclosed in 2010.

In April last year, the Treasury expanded its foreclosure prevention program to include second liens and help home-equity lenders reduce their interest rates. However, this second-mortgage program has not been carried out and has not been able to help cut down real estate foreclosure listings.

With short sales accounting for another 20 percent of overall home sales, distressed sales in Cedar City accounted for more than 50 percent of all home sales in the city last year.

The record number of short sales and foreclosures sales in the city pulled down home prices significantly, cutting down the median sales price of $176,000 in 2008 to $145,000 last year.

A typical house in the city, usually measuring 2,000 square feet and usually priced at $260,000 during the boom years, is now being sold off at only $150,000.

Additionally, many homeowners during the boom took out home equity loans, pushing their total mortgage loan amounts to unusually high levels in comparison to their incomes. Many of these homeowners now are staying in houses valued far below their total mortgage loan balances.

Some took out equity loans from their primary residences and invested in lower-priced second homes, making them pressured after the downturn to let their higher-priced first homes become house foreclosures for sale.

According to many real estate agents, the housing market will stay on as a buyer’s dream market in the next several years. This contention has forced older professionals to rethink and review their investments in real estate as their retirement years are approaching because they may not have enough money to spend during their retirement years.

Jennie Hendricks, founder of a Cedar City-based real estate firm, said that 2009 was a transition year for real estate agents, buyers and sellers. She added that agents need to adjust to changes in the property market, including acquiring expertise in short sales and foreclosure sales. Sellers and buyers meanwhile need to know how to adopt to new market practices and policies, including drastic changes in lending regulations.

Hendricks added that lenders are now learning from their huge losses from foreclosures and are now returning to the strict lending policies implemented decades ago. Banks now are again requiring new borrowers to put at least 20 percent down before approving their home loan applications.

For this year, veteran real estate professional Ronnie Vause is more optimistic about the housing market than most, saying that after most house foreclosures for sale are absorbed, the market will begin to get back to normalcy by the end of the second quarter.

According to economist Cameron Findlay of LendingTree.com, mortgage defaults, which are precursors to foreclosures, continue to rise. He added that as unemployment remains high at around 10 percent, more homeowners are defaulting on their monthly home loan payments.

Last week, Fannie Mae stated that the rate for serious defaults in its single-family home loan portfolio jumped up from 4.7 percent in September to nearly 5 percent in October. In October 2008, the rate was only 1.9 percent.

Analysts said that another flood of foreclosures would increase the nationwide inventory of unsold properties and would surely delay a recovery in the housing sector. They said that although home prices rebounded in the last months of 2009 partly due to the original November 30 expiration of the federal tax credit, prices are expected to fall again if foreclosures continue to clobber the market.

In October last year, home prices stabilized based on the 20-city price index compiled by Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller, but price levels were still more than seven percent lower compared to prices in October 2008.

Another factor that will affect the decline or growth of foreclosure lists is the movement of mortgage rates. According to Freddie Mac, mortgage rates for fixed-rate 30-year mortgage loans surpassed the 5-percent level last week, which was still a low level compared to previous rates.

Analysts said that if demand for ten-year U.S. Treasury notes and other government debts declines, mortgage rates will increase – an event that would cause more foreclosure filings as adjustable-rate mortgage loans will reset to much higher loan rates.

The Federal Reserve Board has committed to continue keeping mortgage rates low and has been pumping money into the mortgage sector to impede any rise in rates, but it has plans of slowing its $1.25-trillion scheme of buying mortgage-backed securities in the last months of 2010.

David Blitzer, index committee chairman of Standard & Poor’s, said that the housing and mortgage sectors have still a lot of challenges to overcome, including fears of another wave of foreclosure and increase in mortgage rates.

According to analysts at Moody’s Investors Service, the U.S. government must continue supporting the housing and mortgage markets because they are still vulnerable to growths of foreclosure lists and continued decline in house prices.