Lack of Distressed Properties Brings Real Estate Sales Down
Mortgage loan officers in Lynnwood and across the country have been noticing a trend in declining home sales lately. In February, thirty-one states experienced a decrease in home sales over January, and six states saw a drop from the same time last year. Nationwide, the median sales price for residential properties was $164,667 in February, which represents a decline of one percent from January.
A big part of this trend appears to be related to the dwindling inventory of distressed homes. With many foreclosed properties going on the market over the past years, the housing market had come to depend upon this inventory. However, as demand increases and fewer houses are going into foreclosure, these homes are rapidly drying up. Meanwhile, this dearth of homes is not being adequately compensated for in non-distressed sales or new construction.
Distressed properties still represent a significant part of real estate sales, though. In February, 5.7 percent of sales were short sales and an additional 11.2 percent represented sales of homes owned by banks. This makes for a combined percentage of distressed sales of 16.9 percent, which represents an increase from January’s 16.1 percent but a decline from the 19.1 percent we saw in February of last year.
Source: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/03272014_realtytrac_home_sales.asp
