Last week a client called me about news articles on television and in newspapers related to foreclosures in Florida. He thought that he should invest in Florida foreclosures because they were bargains. I told him that I would research good agents in the Miami, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale areas who could advise him. We wondered about the foreclosure market in Florida as portrayed by the media. Is the media reliable? My experience with the FORECLOSURE market in Southwestern Virginia is most likely very different than the market in Florida for many reasons. In our area, our market has historically remained stable. A friend who has been a lender in the area for decades told me that after evaluating his loans over a 15 year period, he found less than 3% of the loans to be sub prime. His data confirms my experience. In addition, we don't have much of a resort market in Southwest Virginia. Typically, resort and second home markets are the riskiest markets.
Although we are selling more foreclosures than usual, the foreclosure market is a small percentage of our business. Most of the homes that are foreclosed are in a very low price range which indicates that first time home buyers may be the most affected in our area. In particular, many of these properties are also rural properties. We have two major universities, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and Radford University in Radford and a strong base of different industry and technology that provide jobs. A healthy economy is key to a healthy housing market.
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