Distress Sales Plummet in MRIS Territory

This post just in from the Virginia Association of REALTORS, Submitted by Andrew Kantor on May 11, 2012 – 8:32am We’ve now got MRIS’s April numbers for foreclosures and short sales. Short sales are slightly up, but foreclosures are waaaay down. Short sales: 12.2% of the market, up about 3% from last April Foreclosure sales: 11.0% of the market, down 47% from last April Total distressed sales: 23.2% of the market, down 29% from last April Granted, having a market where almost a quarter of the sales are distressed isn’t a Good Thing, but there’s a sense to it. People bought near the top of the bubble and have to sell (for whatever reason — job, life change, etc.). So they either take the hit or work out a short sale with their lenders. That means that short sales are going to continue to be a noticeable part of the market for as long as lots of folks own homes bought between, say, 2004 and 2007. If they have to sell, they’ll have to sell at a lower price, ’cause it’s gonna be a while before prices are back up to those unnatural highs. ====================================== Comments from Vicky Chrisner: This is great news and evidence of the continuing market recovery. From a personal standpoint, within my service areas I am seeing 20% or less of the market is distress sales (foreclosures+short sales). In 2008, I mostly worked REOs (foreclosures); in 2009 it was a mix of REOs and short sales; in 2011 my business was about 1/3 traditional resales, 1/3 distress sales and 1/3 new construction. So far, in 2012, I have worked mostly with traditional resales and new construction and am pleased to report that I am even doing a lot of land sales again…. I estimate the percentage of distress sales is about 15-20% of my business so far; which seems very much in line with the submarkets where I work. -Footnote: MRIS is the Metropolitan Regional Information System~ It is the multiple listing service for the Washington DC Metro area which includes Northern Virginia, Washington DC and most of Maryland. This post is courtesy Vicky Chrisner, "The Real Estate Whisperer" Interested in learning more about local market statistics? Check out this page which gives you some great charts and graphs about stats in the Northern Virginia Market.