Well... hmmmmm the Richmond area property transfers are VERY telling ! Saturday, April 4th's publication of area property transfers show that 44% of all transactions involved a bank as buyer or seller !! YUP... that's right... FORTY-FOUR percent! this is a whopping increase from the 19-24% range of the past 6 weeks.
There is lag time in the reporting so I am guessing that these transactions closed in late Feb to early March... showing a definite proclivity for banks to foreclose and buyers to choose to buy the foreclosures that are out on the market to get the best deals. This corroborates my comments to sellers that their competition out there right now are bank owned properties. A couple relocating to the Richmond area and wanting space for horses looked at two new spec homes I have listed in Amelia VA... each on 15 acres and reduced from the mid $400k's down to the mid $300k's. Feedback from the buyers' agent was that they loved the houses but want to wait to attend a nearby foreclosure auction taking place on April 19th and then they'll decide about making an offer. There you go.
I did read today that we may be out of the recession but we won't know it for several months to come. And the repeat of the fact that layoffs are a lagging indicator, behind all else and job losses may be continuing while other aspects of the economy brighten.
All I know is that buyers are out looking, I have seen more PENDING and SOLD signs out on the streets, and heard of a couple of instances of BIDDING WARS... this is all most encouraging to me. I know our Tranzon auction firm got several properties under contract this past week. Let's keep slogging our way through... residential lending is defnitely getting better, including jumbo opportunites (note; ck Bank of America) and I only hope investor lending follows suit.
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