Robert Darrow, Broker Associate
For my friend John who asked me about how many homes in our marketplace are either short sales or foreclosures. Our market is different than what’s happening nationwide, however our news is not all bad. The percentage of distressed sales is still decreasing even here in Broward and Miami-Dade counties..
Buying a foreclosed home can seem like a dream. Deals sound like they’re too good to be true. But there are some hidden dangers in buying foreclosed properties that could be disheartening and disappointing if you’re not aware of them.
With so much talk in the news about the Shadow Inventory of homes I wanted to take a moment to look at the data to see if the hype is living up to reality.
What we’re seeing is that the states that were hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, namely Florida in particular, actually worked through their foreclosed inventory more quickly than other parts of the country and it appears that lenders are doing a good job of selling off their REO inventory rather efficiently.
We’ve seen lenders doing a great job of selling their inventory both through retail channels (listing with Realtors who are placing the homes for sale through the MLS and traditional marketing) and through bulk sales to investors.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-housing-foreclosed-bofa-idUSBRE83B1LY20120412
We’re seeing the percentage of distressed sales decrease dramatically as a percentage of all homes sold. Nationwide figures indicate that distressed properties are currently 21% of sales, down from as much as 35% of sales back in January of 2012.
If you’re curious about what’s happening in your neighborhood, check out a market report that’s customized for your neighborhood zip code here.