The Virginian-Pilot
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Buyers looking for deals on foreclosed and distressed properties helped lift home sales in South Hampton Roads last month, according to report released Monday by Real Estate Information Network Inc.
Almost 700 existing homes sold last month, up 3 percent from January and 20 percent from a year ago, REIN reported. Nearly three of every seven homes sold - or 42 percent - were bank-owned or were sold for less than the seller owed on the mortgage.
That is the highest volume of foreclosures sales on record, beating last month's 39 percent.
In February 2010, distressed properties accounted for 25 percent of sales.
Ron Foresta, president of Rose & Womble Realty Co.'s resale division, said much of the buying activity has come from investors seeking to renovate homes and sell or rent them. Typical buyers are also seeking deals.
"It's the perceived value of the foreclosures," he said.
Meanwhile, prices continued to slide. The median price for an existing home in South Hampton Roads was $184,900, basically flat from January but down 5.8 percent from February 2010, the Virginia Beach-based multiple listing service reported.
"My story has not changed," said Vinod Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University. "These numbers are basically confirming that the market is still soft and still going through a correction in prices."
The number of homes on the market across both South Hampton Roads and the Peninsula rose last month to 14,170, up about 1 percent from January and 1.6 percent from a year earlier. That represents about 10 months of inventory on the market. Six months of inventory is considered normal.
Distressed properties made up 23 percent of all homes for sale, Agarwal said, which suggests those homes are selling more quickly than other homes.
"If your property is not a foreclosure, and you want to sell, you're having to compete with all the foreclosures in the marketplace," Agarwal said.
At the same time, the average number of days that a home stays on the market remained unchanged at 105 days.
"We have a saying in our business: You can either be a seller or an owner, " Foresta said. "The banks are becoming sellers because they don't want to own anymore."
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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assesment truth
Fanne May has stated that nation wide home prices have gone down an average of 33% since 2006.
Based on my home and neighborhood and friends I know throughout the area that is a pretty good number. Anyone's assesment out there down 33% since 2006?
I have heard talk of class action suit on behalf of the citizens of Norfolk to challenge assesments. Anyone have information on this. We should do the same here in Va Beach.
No one was crying when they
No one was crying when they were rising real fast thanks to fraud and deception.
Mortgage Bankers
The mortgage bankers, through fraud and deception brought the American economy into a depression and they are still at it like nothing ever happened. We missed an opportunity to lock these crooks up, like Angelo Mozilla and recoup the money they swindled.
Distressed Sales
With such a high percentage of distressed sales at foreclosed prices, the banks are really killing themselves. As they cut prices to move foreclosures they're stealing sales from customers who will soon be in foreclosure themselves.
I should also add a disclaimer, my house is for sale at what I owe with foreclosures listed in the neighborhood for significantly less. Maybe you can buy it at a bargain in 6 more months! I'm sure there are others in the same situation and hopefully things will turn around this summer.
The banks are sitting on a
The banks are sitting on a HUGE number of foreclosures. The speculation is they are keeping it off the market so they don't have to report the losses. The downside is the houses rot.
Check out the documentary Inside Job. It's actually available on Archive.org. It just won big awards. Good stuff.
Distressed Sales
Foreclosures and distressed sales are not supposed to affect assessments.
They have always happened, they always will, and they should never impact assessments. Look it up for yourself.
distressed sales
Funny, if you think about it distressed sales are taken into account. When you buy a forclosed property the new assesment is based on the sales price of THAT sale. That new assesment will affect values around it and thus will reflect on the "real" value of an area. So the city not takeing forclosurs it into account on the front end is a disservice to taxpayers and "inflates" taxes. Somehow I think the citys "cherry picking" the homes to come up with the real estate assesmants could be illegal at most and just wrong at the least.
I think the cities ignore
I think the cities ignore the distressed sales and use whatever they can so as not to bring the value down. I sat in a Norfolk City Council informal meeting and this is what the person responsible for doing this in Norfolk said they do. She was saying in some neighborhoods they couldn't find sales that weren't distressed so they revert to using other nearby neighborhoods.
There is still lots of pain. Job losses, lack of rapid appreciation, and people that want to relocate.
distressed sales
Well if distress sales are not taken into consideration then that is a total self serving property tax issue to keep assesments inflated. If forclosures are getting close to 50% of sales and are a result of economic conditions of the housing market there is an issue. If city assesments are not ment to be market driven and just a tax ...well ok then. BUT if it supposed to be market driven and the city just selects what parts of the market it chooses to use to for that market assesment you got a fairness and perception issue. Why not just use sales that are an increases for the assesment calucation? BUT, I think what is going on here that foreclosures and short sales SHOULD be used in real estate assesmant calucalutions.
5.8% decline..interesting
Interesting that the average home prices in Hampton Roads AVERAGED 5.8% decline but not ONE City dropped their average assesment anywhere close to that. Wish they would have published the average decline city by city as well.