Homeowners Vacate Many Properties Pre-Foreclosure

Evenrnas real estate agents in many parts of the country are decrying thernlack of available homes to sell, RealtyTrac, the California companyrnthat tracks foreclosure activity, reports that nearly three-quartersrnof a million properties are standing vacant across the country. Twenty percent of all properties for which foreclosures are pendingrnor 167,680 homes are empty because their owners have moved out evenrnbefore the foreclosure has taken place. Another 544,274 propertiesrnare in bank-owned inventories (REO) and are presumably also vacant. </p

“Somewhatrnironically, efforts to slow the slide of the housing market inrnprevious years are hampering a smooth recovery by holding backrninventory of homes that almost certainly must sell in the future butrnare not yet listed for sale,” said Daren Blomquist, vice presidentrnat RealtyTrac. “This includes homes in foreclosure that have beenrnvacated by the homeowner, which account for one in every five U.S.rnproperties actively in the foreclosure process, as well as more thanrnhalf a million bank-owned homes.</p

Florida hasrnnearly one-third of the vacant, non-foreclosed homes, a total ofrn55,503 properties. Illinois is second with 17,672 followed followedrnby California (9,802), Ohio (9,723), and New York (9,173). Statesrnthat were above the national average of 20 percent in owner vacatedrnproperties included Indiana, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, and Georgia.rn</p

Bloomquistrnsaid that efforts by state and federal governments to preventrnforeclosures and keep properties from flooding the market and furtherrnhurting home values have had an unintended consequence. Thernforeclosure process now takes an average of 477 days nationwide andrnup to two years in some states. This is holding many of whatrnBloomquist called “must-sell properties” off the market.rn “Even if all these homes flooded the market simultaneouslyrnthey would likely not cause the once-feared double dip in pricesrngiven supply constraints from non-distressed sellers and strongerrndemand,” he said. “Given these market dynamics, it’s notrnsurprising to see that Florida, Illinois and New Jersey – statesrnwith three of the four longest foreclosure timelines – have all hadrnlaws take effect in the last six months that speed up the foreclosurernprocess on vacant properties. These laws should help provide somernextra supply and possibly help reduce the threat of another housingrnprice bubble forming in these markets.”</p

Chicago had thernmost owner-vacated foreclosures of any metro area nationwide, withrn14,717, representing 17 percent of all properties in foreclosure,rnfollowed by Miami (13,901), New York (10,074), Tampa-St.rnPetersburg-Clearwater (9,998), and Orlando (5,569).</p

Lower endrnproperties were more likely to be vacant. Twenty-nine percent ofrnhomes with values below $50,000 and 25 percent valued between $50,000rnand $100,000 were vacant but only 12 percent of those valued abovern$1 million

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