The stigma attached to buying a foreclosure seems to be fading. According to a new survey released by Realtor.com, nearly two-thirds of homebuyers (64.9 percent) say they are likely to buy a foreclosure compared to 25.3 percent who said the same in October 2009. A majority of buyers (92.1 percent) say they plan to live in these properties rather than use them as investments. Realtor.com attributes the increased demand for foreclosure properties to reduced supply of homes on the market, expectations of rising home prices and changing attitudes toward foreclosures.
However, many Americans remain concerned about the large number of foreclosures on the market. More than half (55.7 percent) worry that the 1.5 million backlogged foreclosures expected to be released by major lenders will drive down home values in their local markets. Midwesterners (62.2 percent) are more concerned than residents in the nation’s other three regions.
Foreclosure data varies considerably from one study to the next, but according to Realtor.com, foreclosures have declined 34 percent nationwide in the past 12 months. Still, most Americans say they have not seen improvement in foreclosure activity in their local markets. Nearly half of those surveyed believe the foreclosure situation is about the same today compared to a year ago. While 34.9 percent of Americans are concerned that they or someone they know will lose their home to foreclosure within the next year, that figure is far below March 2009 when 52.5 percent of Americans expressed this same concern.
(from my CRS Connect on line newsletter)
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