Excellent reporting from Diana Olick:
Sales of bank-owned (REO) homes accounted for 10 percent of all residential property sales in November, according to RealtyTrac. That is up from 9.1 percent in October and accounted for the third consecutive month of increases in REO sales.
“Lenders are taking advantage of this environment to unload more of their bank-owned inventory and in-foreclosure inventory at the foreclosure auction,” said RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist in a release.
[VIDEO] What is the #1 money making opportunity in real estate? Short sales. Nearly 40% of all homeowners with a mortgage are STILL underwater. New short sale programs for all lenders expected. Get ahead of the curve and learn the 2014 short sale secrets. Watch the FREE Short Sale training video and download the quick close short sale guide now.
Institutional investors, who drove the distressed sales market over the past few years, dropped off earlier this year, faced with bidding wars in some of the previously hot markets. Now they appear to have revived interest.
Their purchases represented 7.7 percent of all home sales in November, up from 6.3 percent a year ago. This may be because price gains are slowing down, and more inventory is coming on the market.
“We have seen an uptick in REO offerings, which is a little surprising for this time of the year,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president at Auction.com.
Urgent Help Wanted: New report exposes the cold hard fact that 44% of all homeowners are STILL underwater. New REO Surge expected soon. Exclusive FREE REO/ BPO TRAINING for agents who are ready to learn how to list bank owned homes. Watch FREE Training Video now and Download FREE Training Guide. NOTE: First 700 Agents only.
Sharga said his company, which auctions off properties online, got 3,000 REOs last week that had never been marketed before. “We are seeing more properties sold at trustee sales, and we are seeing more properties that are coming from servicers priced to sell at trustee sales.”
and this:
…all-cash sales is rising again. While the Realtors put it at 32 percent of all sales, RealtyTrac, which may get more data on distressed sales, puts the share at 42 percent, the highest level since it began tracking all-cash purchases in January 2011.