Although the number in January exceeded the December figure, somewhat showing a sign of improvement, it is still below 4.63 million economists had expected.

In addition, NAR revised down its December home sales rate from a pace of 4.61 million units to 4.38 million units.

On top of that, Prices Continued to Fall. The median sales price dropped in January to $154,700. That’s down 2 percent from the same month last year.

In this environment, even if you want to sell your property, it’d be very hard to do so. Especially, in places like Brooklyn, the Bronx, NY where a lot of foreclosure houses are flooding the market.

All told, 210,941 U.S. homes received a default notice, were scheduled for auction or were arepossessed by a lender in January, RealtyTrac said.

That’s up 3% from December last year. The foreclosure rate translates to one in every 624 U.S. households.

Some states posted sharp increases compared to January 2011. In New Hampshire, foreclosures jumped 62%. In Massachusetts, 75%. Economists are wondering if this trend would continue for some time.

In this environment, even if you want to sell your house, it’d be much harder.

And Bernanke admits that the declines in home prices have forced many Americans to cut back sharply on spending. He says the broader economy won’t fully recover until the depressed housing market turns around.

People are spending less because they are stuck in “underwater” homes, which are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. And home values are falling because of foreclosures and tight credit — even in areas with lower unemployment.

In this environment, it is obviously hard to sell your house. Especially, in the Bronx or Brooklyn NY, where a lot of foreclosures are flooding into the market.

He thinks it’s too hard to get a loan these days. Before the housing boom, and the subprime mortgage debacle, the typical person getting a loan backed by Fannie Mae loan had a credit score of 720. Now it’s 762.

Bankers say they’re insisting that home buyers meet standards even higher than those set by Fannie and Freddie.

That shows up in the default figures. Of loans made in 2009, after the bust, 1.2 percent were in default after 18 months, Yun noted. On those made in 2007, 29 percent went bad.

Lending could get tougher later this year if federal agencies go ahead with proposals to require borrowers to place 20 percent down on a home to get the best mortgage rates, Yun noted

That suggests that US Home Sales are likely to worsen this year, too. In this depressed housing market, if you are selling your house, it’d be hard for you to have it sold.

US Home prices are now back to early 2003 levels.

Here are comments from S&P researchers:

The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand.

On top of that, Another Wave of Foreclosures threatens to keep the pressure on prices and delay recovery in the industry that precipitated the last recession, underscoring the Federal Reserve’s view that US housing “Remains Depressed.”

In these conditions of the Housing Market, it is very hard to have your house sold now.

In this environment, it is very hard to sell your house.

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It puts an end to a year in which home builders started building a record-low number of single-family homes: starts of single-family houses in 2011 fell 9 percent to a record-low 428,600 units, to be exact.

These data are suggesting that recovery in the US Housing Market will take time. Falling home prices and ongoing foreclosures are hampering an industry-wide recovery.

In fact, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC forecasts that home prices will go down another 5-6 percent from now.

However, still, The Fed report says that commercial and residential real estate remains weak.

Wednesday’s Beige Book clearly highlighted continued fragility in real estate markets, indicating that “Activity stayed sluggish in residential real estate markets, and conditions in commercial real estate markets remained somewhat soft overall.”

Housing remains in the gutter, as the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices suggest. Prices have barely moved off their crisis lows despite unprecedented support from the Federal Reserve.

As Foreclosure properties flood into the local housing market, the Home Prices are likely to go down in the Bronx or Brooklyn, NYC in the near future.

In these circumstances, it would be very hard to sell a house.