CHART: Foreclosures made up 25 percent of national home sales in third quarter
Even discounted homes don't sell. Two charts at the bottom of the story.
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The worst summer for home sales in decades also put a chill on foreclosure sales, even as the average discounts on the distressed properties got bigger compared with other types of homes.
Foreclosure sales plunged 25 percent in the July-September quarter versus the April-June period and tumbled 31 percent from the third quarter last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
Sales of non-foreclosed properties fell 29 percent sequentially and nearly 31 percent from the third quarter last year, the firm said.
The decline in sales of bank-owned properties and other homes in some stage of foreclosure is in line with an overall housing market slowdown that took hold after federal homebuyer tax credits expired in April.
The fallout over foreclosure processing errors that prompted some lenders to temporarily halt sales of bank-owned homes wasn't a significant factor in the sharp third-quarter drop in foreclosure sales, said Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac spokesman.
"We could expect probably in the fourth quarter to see that percentage of foreclosure sales dip because buyers are a bit skittish about purchasing foreclosure properties, given the questions surrounding the foreclosure process," Blomquist said.
Already, the firm has seen a decline in foreclosure activity in November, which suggests a holdover effect from the foreclosure documents mess. That could mean fewer home sales in the final months of the year — already a traditionally slow period.
In all, 188,748 U.S. homes in some stage of foreclosure were sold in the July-September period, accounting for a quarter of all U.S. residential property sales, RealtyTrac said.
The firm used data from sales deeds filed with county recorder offices. The transactions include sales of newly built homes and previously occupied properties. Foreclosure sales include homes sold by banks and short sales — when the homeowner and the bank agree to sell the property for less than what is owned on the mortgage.
As a share of overall home sales, foreclosure sales rose slightly from the second quarter. They peaked at 37 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2009, but have ranged between 25 percent and 30 percent this year, Blomquist said.
One key driver is the quantity of foreclosed properties on the market.
In 2005, as the housing boom roared, foreclosure sales accounted for just 1 percent of all sales.
This year, even before the foreclosure documents snag erupted, the foreclosure process began to slow as lenders stepped up attempts to modify loans. Lenders also appear to be managing their stock of repossessed homes, not wanting to flood the market with too many properties.
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Jan 9, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Reader Comments (13)
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/11/11/2010-11-11_foreclosures_down_in_city_filings_fall_19_since_oct_09.html#ixzz1757VU1Mm
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2010/11/24/2010-11-24_foreclosed_shadow_housing_stock_hits_two_million_.html#ixzz1757cWwNg
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/11/18/2010-11-18_mortgage_fraud_back_on_the_rise_new_report_finds.html#ixzz1757hkxQC
http://www.theamericansheeple.com
Investors gain greater rates of return in these regions. The Return on Investment (ROI) when accounting for human capital is increasing at an increasing rate in these regions while in the U.S.A., it's decreasing at an increasing rate.
Combined with a demographic shift where there are fewer house-buying aged Americans with increasing earning power owing to advanced skills, it is inevitable that house prices must fall.
The strategem of importing people from Mexico and elsewhere has failed because these imported people have significantly lower IQs combined with a lack of technical job skills needed to manifest the products consumers want to buy.
Thus even if a big number of persons living in the USA have entered the house buying / house upgrading years in their lifecycle, they lack the skills to gain the income needed to service debt on mortgage contracts and nearly ANY PRICE.
Welcome to the New America. It's the biggest real-life fail video ever.
@ smack...
not sure what this means...mexican labor is generally used in construction and restaurants...and in agriculture...this lower IQ stuff is bunk, smack, and you know it...
That's all IQ dummy.
Not surprisingly, like so many who do not get all things money, credit, banking, and economics you have wrong focus. The salient point in my post is that a collapse in prices connects to an unwillingness to put forth credit. That unwillingness arises from the recognition by far-seeing investors that the rate of return on investment of future Americans does not compare favorably to the ROI of workers elsewhere.
smack...there was no strategy to bring people in from mexico for high tech jobs...that was one of my points...
No, everyone knows they bring them in from China and India and others under H1-B visas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa
Abuse of the H1-B visa is very common.
http://www.businessinsider.com/feds-suddenly-paying-attention-to-h-1b-abuse-arrest-11-2009-2
http://www.cwalocal4250.org/outsourcing/binarydata/Corporate%20Scandal.pdf