Written by Jim the Realtor

March 14, 2010

Mary asked, “How many SD foreclosures have there been over the last three years?”

Trustee Sales 2007 2008 2009 2010
REO 7,859 (22/day) 17,894 (49/day) 11,760 (32/day) 2,097 (30/day)
3rd Party 399 (1/day) 593 (2/day) 2,749 (8/day) 865 (12/day)
Totals 8,258 (23/day) 18,487 (51/day) 14,509 (40/day) 2,962 (42/day)

A total of 44,216 trustee sales since January 1, 2007!

In the same time frame there have been 95,499 sales of detached and attached homes on the MLS.

13 Comments

  1. shadash

    As a buyer numbers like these are just sickening.

  2. clearfund

    I would venture to guess that nearly all of the 44k Trustee sales were ultimately sold via the MLS (REO/Flipper). Thus of the 95k total mls sales there were only about 50k of non trustee originated sales.

    Of that 50k a good portion of those were sold short instead of making it onto the trustee sale list. Lets guess about 30% to be light.

    Thus, only 35,000 organic, non short/trustee sale properties in 3.25 years (10,700/yr).

    Jim – How does 10,700/yr stack of historically for SD county?

  3. JP2

    42/day when we have all kinds of “loan modification” programs going…

  4. rebeloc

    look at government manipulation, amazing!

  5. Art Eclectic

    The government has pulled out all the stops to save the middle-upper middle class housing prices. I think they guess that most of the weak hands have been purged from the market, which I suppose they mostly have. They have tightened the spigot a bit too much, though, although we will have to see what happens when the tax break is removed…IF it is allowed to expire. What’s the point of a tax break if there isn’t anything out there worth buying if not to drive up prices because buyers are all competing for the same 10% of quality inventory?

    Although, I have to admit I don’t mind this so much as long as the hands in the game are strong and paying cash or putting a full 20% down. But how many of those types of buyers are out there? Certainly more than we have quality inventory for….

    That fixer on the next block over from me has been on the market 38 days now with no takers – they’ve dropped price from $283k to $259k. We’re taking bets on how low it goes before a buyer who wants to spend $30k in renovations shows up.

  6. Geotpf

    I’m actually surprised it’s not more dramatic. That is, look at the 2008 number compared to 2009 and 2010. The fall was only 20% (51 to 40/42 a day), even though there were no governmental incentives or loan mod programs to stall foreclosure in 2008.

    In any case, it is often in the bank’s best interest to attempt a loan mod. If the total amount they can get back from a loan mod is more than the net proceeds (including all selling costs, like repairs or real estate commisions) from a REO or trustee sale, then it is in their best interest to do a loan mod.

  7. shadash

    Art Eclectic,

    “I think they guess that most of the weak hands have been purged from the market,”

    What is your reasoning for this statement?

    I’m seeing more and more deadbeats listing at wishing prices and they’re not being forced to move. On average deadbeats get 1 year of free rent before foreclosure in SD. (also the number seems to be increasing)

    How in the world is this “flushing the weak hands”?

  8. Chuck Ponzi

    Everything has to be paid for some how.

    Whether it is diminished future returns, or loss of confidence, the invisible hand will not be held back.

    Sooner or later, it will exert itself somewhere else, and not where you want it to.

    Chuck

  9. Art Eclectic

    Shadash, in my mind the weak hands (no down payment, no doc, no income) have been mostly flushed out. What remains are specuvestors and opportunists. The opportunists are the ones playing the free rent program for all it’s worth. They’re right up there with strategic defaulters….they can pay, but why bother when the government is sponsoring a free rent program?

  10. Hu Flung Pu

    Jim,

    How long, on average, are foreclosed homes staying on the MLS (or, “remaining unsold,” if you prefer) once they’re listed? I’m assuming that “real” inventory (including shadow inventory) is somewhere around 2x-2.5x the MLS inventory. Which, while problematic, doesn’t portend disaster so long as the foreclosures are getting sold quickly once they hit the MLS.

  11. Anonymous

    The housing inventory is a likely dam. Eventually we’re going to run out of fingers to plug the holes

  12. Anonymous

    likely should have been leaky

  13. Hu Flung Pu

    There are currently 5 months of MLS inventory in SD County right now. If we double that number to account for shadow inventory then we’re up to 10 months. 2.5x and we’re up to just over a year’s worth of inventory. That’s bad. Very bad. And prices *should* be declining if all of that inventory were on the market. But it isn’t the end of the world… particularly when there are hardly any new homes being built. Unless we have another dramatic decline in GDP – always possible, of course – most of that excess inventory is going to get sucked up over the next 2-3 years because very little is being built (in relative terms).

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