REO Sales Share Below One-Third of Peak

The percentage of total home sales coming from distressedrninventories continues to drop.  CoreLogicrnsaid on Monday that short sales and sales of owned real estate (REO) fell 3.2rnpercentage points from March 2014 to March 2015 and were down 1.9 percent fromrnFebruary to March.  </p

REO properties accounted for 8.4 percent of home sales inrnMarch and short sales made up 3.7 percent for a total distressed property sharernof 12.1 percent.  CoreLogic said thatrnMarch is typically a month in which distressed sales fall due to seasonalrnfactors, but this March had the lowest share of any March since 2007. </p

At the peak in January 2009 distressed sales totaled 32.4 percent of allrnsales and REO sales for 27.9 percent. The continuing decrease in REO sales hasrnaccounted in part for rising home prices since bank-owned properties typicallyrnsell at a larger discount than short sales. CoreLogic said there will always bernsome amount of distress in the housing market but the pre-crisis share ofrndistressed sales was traditionally about 2 percent.  If the current year-over-year decrease in the distressedrnsales share is maintained, that share would reach its “normal”rn2-percent mark in mid-2017.</p

</p

Michigan had the largest share of distressed sales in March at 22.1 percent followedrnby Florida (22 percent), Illinois (20.1 percent), Maryland (19.5 percent) andrnConnecticut (19.1 percent). Nevada had an 8 percentage point drop in itsrndistressed sales share from a year earlier, the largest decline of any staternwhile the distressed share of California sales has fallen 57.6 percentagernpoints from its January 2009 peak of 67.5 percent. While some states stand outrnas having high distressed sales shares, only North Dakota and the District ofrnColumbia are even close to their pre-crisis numbers (within one percentagernpoint).</p

Of the 25 largest Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) based on loan count, the<bthree areas with the largest share of distressed sales were in Florida; the Orlandornarea at 24.6 percent, followed by Miami (24.2 percent) and Tampa-St.rnPetersburg-Clearwater  (23.5rnpercent).  Chicago (22.9 percent) andrnBaltimore (19.2 percent) rounded out the top five. </p

Atlanta had the largest year-over-year drop in its distressed share, fallingrnby 8.8 percentage points in March 2014 to 15.7 percent in March 2015. The CBSArnwith the largest overall improvement in its distressed sales share from the peakrnwas Riverside-San Bernardino where distressed sales made up 76.3 percent of allrnsales in February 2009 compared to the March 2015 share of 12.9 percent.

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.