Decrease in Bank Owned Homes Inventory
Add a comment Thursday, September 17, 2009
I recently had a conversation with a client who wants to wait a couple of years to purchase because she thinks prices will continue to go down with more bank owned homes coming on the market. I told her that, in this area, the inventory of bank owned properties has really slowed down. One colleague of mine described it as “drying up.” Perhaps that is just a temporary situation. Time will tell. In the meantime, the lowest priced homes are getting multiple offers with the winners offering as much as $20,000 or more over the asking price. The consensus among the local Realtors is that we have passed the bottom and are headed back up.
Below, is an article from C.A.R. with the latest data for the state, but bear in mind that we are a unique local market here. The areas that had massive growth are the areas that seem to be hurting the worst. Our lack of housing keeps our prices elevated. That’s why there were ten offers (6 of them first-time buyers) on a house I tried to get for some clients last weekend. (They didn’t want it badly enough to bid as high as I recommended and they didn’t win.) Here is the article…..
Foreclosure filings decrease less than 1 percent in August
Foreclosure filings, including notices of default, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions were reported on 358,471 U.S. properties in August, a decrease of less than 1 percent from July, and an increase of nearly 18 percent from August 2008. The report by RealtyTrac® also shows one in every 357 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in August.
“The August report demonstrates that there still is an ample supply of properties filling the foreclosure pipeline even while the outflow of bank-owned REO properties onto the resale market is being more carefully regulated,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “After hitting a high for the year in July, REOs dropped 13 percent in August, but we also saw a record high number of properties either entering default or being scheduled for a public foreclosure auction for the first time.”
California documented the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 144 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing. California REOs declined 32 percent from the previous month, but continued to post the highest overall total of any state, with 92,326 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in August. California’s total was down 15 percent from the previous month and was also down 9 percent from August 2009—he first year-over-year decrease in California foreclosure activity in RealtyTrac’s monthly reports.
Six California metro areas documented foreclosure rates among the top 10 in August. Stockton posted the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate—one in every 74 housing units received a foreclosure filing—followed by Merced at Number 3 (one in 78), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 4 (one in 80), Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 5 (one in 82), Modesto at No. 6 (one in 84), and Bakersfield at No. 10 (one in 94).
