Yesterday I had the great opportunity to moderate a symposium on mortgage liquidity with a pretty heavy panel of mortgage bankers and industry executives.

I knew they would be guarded in their answers, as I asked about the new world of underwriting, the wind down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the tighter more expensive FHA, new federal regulation in the industry and a controversial new appraisal process.

And they were guarded, until I opened up the floor to the Realtors, who hammered them hard on foreclosures, short sales, and mortgage credit for independent contractors like themselves.

A Realtor from Wilmington, NC asked what are the plans for companies to put the shadow (foreclosed) inventory onto the market? Most agents believe banks are holding on to these properties to somehow game the market, but the bankers were firm in their rebuttal:

Cara Heiden/Wells Fargo [ WFC 28.23  +0.07 (+0.25%) ]: “With respect to shadow inventory, we are not holding on to properties. On average we do hold the REO about 160-70 days, but once they’re listed they’re sold in 90 days and the reason that we hold them for a period of time prior to listing is so that we can get them in better shape for sale and uphold, to the extent that we can, market values. So we’re not holding other than for the purpose of getting that property to a level that does help maintain market values whenever possible.”

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