Antelope Valley Existing Home News (compliments of Frank Donato of Fidelity Title)
Foreclosure Inventory:
We all know that the current and pending foreclosures are acting as a road block to returning to a normal market, where distress sales are the exception, instead of the rule, as now. If we follow the supply of foreclosures and pending foreclosures, we will be able to have some idea of the pace of improvement as these inventories get drawn down, which may be able to give us an eventual “get well” date.
If we add up the Dec 2010 columns of foreclosures, Palmdale has 3,790 homes in some phase of foreclosure, and Lancaster a bit less at 3,251. If we add the two cities together, we get a total number of 7,041 homes that are in, or are about to be in, the foreclosure process. As compared to one year ago, when the total number was 8,214, we dropped in this category by 1,173 homes, or about a 14.2% improvement. If we continue to drop 1,100 home per year off of this list, that means we are looking at a period of at least 5 more years of this type of market. However, that is “straight line” thinking and markets rarely move in convenient straight lines. I believe, that as the economy improves, we could see banks release more inventory and sales pick up. If so, that five year number could be reduced to 3 years, but we’ll have to wait and see how things progress. Continue reading
