Well, exactly. There are no buyers for this stuff - nor for all of the excess real estate, nor for the huge amount of excess commercial real estate that has barely begun its own implosion.
With no buyers, the asset is valued at zero dollars. Someday, somewhere, some buyer will probably appear for some of the physical real estate, at least. But many of those homes in distant, undesirable suburbs are going to end up as crack houses and will ultimately get bulldozed. Value: zero dollars. And we own them, now. ;)
If the opportunity to make money on these depressed assets is so great, then why don’t cash rich players with long investment horizons, like sovereign wealth funds, university endowment funds, and the Buffetts of the world, swoop down and buy these up? Is Federal Government better at assessing these assets than the professionals?
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Watch and see what happens next week. If the government establishes a bid, say at 30 cents on the dollar, there very well may be other players jumping in to buy at a higher price. It is not happening now because of the sheer panic in the market.