Category Archives: Foreclosure

Coldwell Banker NRTDA Closes 400 Residential Lots Totaling Over $10M in Sales!

Posted on September 16, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Coldwell Banker NRT Development Advisors (NRTDA) is pleased to announce that they have closed over 400 disposition lots in the past nine months, generating sales of over $10 million.

Over the past year, NRTDA has worked with several national banks to oversee all aspects of listing, selling and closing residential lots in 15 states across the U.S. Lots range in size from one-tenth of an acre to more than 35 acres in neighborhoods including Blue Valley, Echelon, Middleton Plantation and Traditions, and are priced from $1,500 to $700,000.

Brad Horner, president of NRTDA, says that his company hand selected 100 local real estate sales associates who are experts in REO lots and have a minimum of three years experience to help market and sell the disposition lots. “The main challenge of selling disposition lots is the fact that the majority of these properties have been sitting on the market because of incorrect pricing,” says Horner.

“All of our agents are responsible for compiling a strong market profile and suggesting a new list price for the bank in order for their assigned lot to sell within 30-90 days.”

Horner says due to current financing restrictions, 98% of the buyers are paying cash. The majority of the buyers are either single-family homebuilders buying several lots in specific neighborhoods, or end users who purchase a lot to eventually build a home. “The prices on these lots are so affordable that we’ve seen dual offer situations,” says Horner. “Buyers are coming off the sidelines to get what they consider a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to purchase in areas that they thought they’d never be able to afford.

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Posted in award winning real estate, Bank Owned, Bank Owned Lots, Foreclosure, Uncategorized

Block Talk: Year-Over-Year Changes in Atlanta Distressed Sales

Posted on August 26, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Judy Price

For this week’s column, I pulled numbers from our Universal Database to see how the Atlanta market is performing in distressed sales (as a percentage of overall sales numbers) year-over-year for 2011 vs. 2010.

  

The table above summarizes year-over-year changes (to date) in the amount of sales in FMLS that were foreclosure, lender-owned, corporate or short sale. The only category to see improvement is single-family new construction homes. While the supply of distressed inventory remaining in this category is at 8 months, as discussed in my April 22nd column, the amount of inventory is continuing to decline which is resulting in the year-over-year improvement in this distressed number.

As to the other categories, a continued increase in distressed sales can result in additional downward price pressure to a market bouncing along the bottom. However, the low months of remaining supply of resale distressed inventory is positive and provides some hope that we are working through some of the distress. What remains to be seen is how much shadow foreclosure inventory Atlanta has coming as the banks continue to work out the process.

A quick reminder on my methodology. For the single-family home data, I pull numbers from a 6-county area of Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton, Forsyth, DeKalb and Gwinnett. For Condos/Townhouses, I use a 4-county area of DeKalb, Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett. Respectively, over 80% of sales occur in these counties.

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Posted in Bank Owned, Block Talk, Distressed Sales in Atlanta, Foreclosure, Housing stats in Atlanta, Market data

Block Talk: National Data on Shadow Inventory

Posted on July 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Judy Price

Often we’re asked to comment on the inventory of shadow housing – those properties that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure and real estate owned (REO) by lenders, but aren’t currently listed in FMLS/MLS. Our clients want to understand future supply that would be competition for their own properties. In my previous blog,  I used data from RealValuator to talk about local trends in pre-foreclosures which gives insight into shadow inventory.

Today, I’m looking on a national level. LPS Applied Analytics performs extensive research on national mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures which comprise shadow inventory. Points below are current as of May 31, 2011 (from July report). The next report will be published during the first week of August.

  • Nationally, there is (an estimated) 4 years worth of 90+ day delinquent/foreclosure inventory currently in the system, some of which will be working its way towards foreclosure. 

 

  • Problem loans peaked in 2009 at 2.7% of all loans. May 2011 stood at 1.27%; lowest point was spring 2006 at .5% of all loans.
  • Delinquencies are down from peak in 2009 by 20% due to modification efforts or moving to foreclosure; however, foreclosures remain at an all time high.
  • 1 in 10 borrowers are in some state of delinquency or foreclosure.
  • Lack of equity, especially at a combined loan-to-value ration of >150% is a primary driver of new problem loans; 32% of all borrowers are in a negative equity position.
  • 70% of loans in foreclosure are underwater (of these 70%, 35% have CLTV >150%) – the longer these stay in foreclosure, the greater the chance of a continued effect on housing recovery.
  • Delinquencies are almost 2x, and foreclosures are 8x, historical “norms”.
  • Average time a loan is in foreclosure:  580 days.

LPS reports that Georgia has seen a 50% drop in foreclosure sales since the peak in Sept 2010. There still exists a bottleneck on foreclosure sales, resulting in a high amount of inventory just sitting in the pipeline that exists as shadow inventory. It could take many more years for this shadow inventory to be absorbed, especially with moratoriums, and the length of time is takes to process and sell foreclosures.

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Posted in Block Talk, Foreclosure

Block Talk: Pre-Foreclosures

Posted on May 6, 2011 by | 1 Comment

By Judy Price

Two weeks ago, I analyzed pending sales, a lending indicator of future closings. This week, I’m highlighting another way that NRTDA looks for future trends, this time in the filings of pre-foreclosures. But before we look at the data, let’s review the definition of a pre-foreclosure first.

A pre-foreclosure is the legal event and notification of a present default. In Georgia, for a foreclosure to move forward, it must be advertised for four weeks before the bank can foreclose. Why do we look at this metric? Well, while not all pre-foreclosures actually turn into foreclosures (often the borrower works something out with the bank), by tracking movement up or down, we can look for signs of improvement or further distress in the foreclosure market.

A review of pre-foreclosure filings over the past 12 months uncovered:

Detached Single Family Homes (Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett)*

  • While there was a slight uptick Feb 2011, pre-foreclosure notices have been on the decline since Nov 2010.
  • For new construction, there were 73 notices in February and 72 in March.
  • For resale, there were 2,076 notices in February and 1,734 in March.

 Attached Condos/Townhomes (Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett)*

  • Same as detached, there was a slight uptick in Feb 2011. That one month aside, pre-foreclosure notices have been declining since Dec 2010.
  • For new construction, there were 25 notices in February and 19 in March.
  • For resale, there were 355 notices in February and 223 in March.

I’ve performed a number of market studies over the past 12 months and have seen figures quite high for pre-foreclosures, leading to long discussions about market realities. But today I’m feeling like this glass is half-full. The declining level of notices is a positive sign. Even if this means we start to see an up-tick in short-sales, at least this says that the banks are trying a different route to work through distressed homes.

*Big thanks to RealValuator for providing us with such a valuable tool that we can use to help our clients.

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Posted in Atlanta Real Estate, Block Talk, Condo, Foreclosure, Housing stats in Atlanta, Market data, Trends

What will happen to the unfinished lots in higher end communities?

Posted on January 25, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By: Meril Missbach

What should be done with unfinished lots in higher end communities?  A few thoughts:

It is unfortunate that so many high-end single family communities broke ground during the real estate boom, only to be left with empty lots collecting dust during the decline of the economy.  As the market declined, the original builders were not able to sell the upscale houses above the price at which it cost them to build.  Therefore, the lenders have had to foreclose on the empty lots, leaving the communities partially unfinished.

In my opinion, the best thing that could happen to these unstable communities, is for a financially stable, reputable builder to purchase the foreclosed lots and build smaller homes that are in keeping with the architecture and curb appeal of the existing larger homes.  These smaller homes would be sold at much lower prices than the original, larger homes.  Rather than continuing to build large homes at dramatically reduced prices, the smaller homes would allow for a more affordable product that would be appealing to a larger audience. These new smaller homes would not be in direct competition with the larger luxury product that currently exists and, therefore, the value of the larger homes would not be brought down by the new construction.  The current homeowners would not be upside down in their mortgage.  Homeowners in these communities will be able to sell their homes based on the size and finish, regardless of the disparity of pricing within the community.

Five years from now, when the market is more stable and we are looking back at communities that were completed between 2009 and 2011, we will see many communities that have varying sized homes and significant price ranges.

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Posted in Foreclosure, Lots in High End Neighborhoods, Value of a home

Friday Five: The Atlanta foreclosure landscape

Posted on October 1, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Brad Horner

This week, RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its Q2 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report, which found that foreclosure homes accounted for 24% of all residential sales in the second quarter of 2010.  It also reported that the average sales price of properties that sold while in some stage of foreclosure was more than 26% below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process—down slightly from a 27% average discount in the first quarter.

What does the Atlanta foreclosure landscape look like?  Below are recent news reports.

  1. At least one quarter of all house sales during the second quarter in Georgia were foreclosure sales.  Some 27.4 percent (or 8,379) of all sales were foreclosures, putting the Peach State in the top 10 for foreclosure sales, according to RealtyTrac.  This marked a 25.7 percent decrease in foreclosure sales from the second quarter of 2009 and a 3.4 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2010.
  2. The average foreclosure sale price in Georgia was $120,793.
  3. $50 million dollars was recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help stabilize Georgia neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure.  The money is being offered through HUD’s neighborhood stabilization program and is supposed to help local communities acquire, redevelop or demolish foreclosed properties. Atlanta will get $5 million of Georgia’s share.
  4. Foreclosure notices in metro Atlanta dropped 24 percent in September — from the monthly record of 13,130 notices set in August, Equity Depot figures reveal.
  5. For the fifth straight month, Gwinnett County led the pack with 2,140 foreclosure notices. Fulton was second, with 1,896, followed by DeKalb (1,361), Cobb (1,227) and Clayton (803).

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Posted in Foreclosure, Friday Five

Friday Five: Advantages of buying a foreclosed home

Posted on April 2, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By: Brad Horner

The National Association of Realtors recently reported that sales of distressed properties, including foreclosures and short sales, made up 38% of home sales in January 2010 and 35% in February 2010.  There are many reasons that homebuyers and investors alike continue to flock to foreclosed homes; below are the top five advantages:

  1. Price is the obvious first advantage, as foreclosed homes are sold by highly motivated sellers – banks – which often list homes below market value.  In addition to being bargains for owner-occupied residences, foreclosed homes are often sought after for vacation homes or rental properties, as they provide a cost effective entry into real estate investment.
  2. Banks may be more likely to finance foreclosed homes that they have listed, as they have an interest in selling these homes in order to eliminate the costs associated with owning them.
  3. The foreclosure purchase process isn’t very different than the traditional home buying process.  Experienced Realtors can help buyers find foreclosed homes, analyze the market value of a foreclosed home of interest and prepare the offer.
  4. Many foreclosures are brand new construction single-family homes or condo units; therefore they still provide the opportunity to be a home’s first owner.
  5. Purchasing a bank-owned property is considered to be a safe deal for inexperienced foreclosure buyers, as much of the buying risk is eliminated since there are no back taxes owed, no liens on the property and no tenants to evict.

Bank-owned properties are easy to find, as many banks have them listed on their Web sites.  Or you can also visit www.CBBankOwned.com to view nearly one thousand bank-owned new construction homes in Georgia and Florida markets and also learn about upcoming open houses.

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Posted in Bank Owned, Foreclosure, Friday Five, REO