A very interesting trend! The property transfers this week in the Richmond VA metro area/surrounding counties reflects that 24% of all transactions involve a financial institution as either buyer or seller, indicating either a foreclosure sale or REO sale. This is a SIGNIFICANT increase over the past 3 weeks' closings which averaged 15.5%. (see my blog 2/15/09)
Out of 400 transactions closed, 96 involved a bank on one side or the other. One quarter of all sales activity! That is HUGE. My feeling is, the more the better because it's clearing out the backlogged discounted inventory and the sooner they are gone from the scene completely, the quicker will be the housing market recovery.
So... the period to date comes to 18% bank involvement looking at all the closings so far but the big increase over just one week is a powerful statement. It will be interesting to see what next week's transfers will bring.
We are all living history RIGHT NOW.
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