The foreclosure rate continues to rise in this country, heading ever higher as distressed homeowners default on their mortgages. Indeed, CNN Money reports on the rising incidence of REOs, and the effect they are having on the housing market:

"Bank repossessions, or REOs, continued to be the fastest growing
segment of foreclosure activity," said RealtyTrac’s chief executive
officer, James Saccacio, in a statement. "The sharp rise in REOs,
combined with slow sales, has resulted in a bloated inventory of
bank-owned properties for sale."

Things are bad enough that Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, thinks that housing prices won’t bottom until 2009.