Shadow Inventory Finally Improving Says S&P

The amount of time it would take for the housing market to move through properties lingering in the foreclosure system is finally improving.

Standard & Poor's analysts estimate it would take 47 months for the housing market to work through the shadow inventory, according to their second quarter research note. They revised that down from 52 months in the first quarter, the first decline since the middle of 2009.

At the end of last year, S&P said the market would need 44 months to move through the inventory and at the end of September 2010, analysts estimated it at 40 months.