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HOUSING: Nervous Buyers, High Supply to Hold Back House Prices for Years

North County Times -- House prices will fall 3 percent nationally in 2012, excluding foreclosures and short sales, Douglas Duncan, Fannie Mae's chief economist, said at a University of San Diego real estate conference on Tuesday.

Mixing in those "distressed" sales, prices could fall 6 or 7 percent, he said.

Too much supply and weak demand could hold down prices for years in San Diego County, and for as long as a decade in hard hit areas such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and the Inland Empire, including Southwest Riverside County, Duncan said at a conference held by the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate. Citing Fannie Mae surveys, Duncan said 9 percent of Americans are unemployed and 26 percent worried that they wouldn't have a job in 6 months. (Full Story)