NEVADA COUNTY SHORT SALE AND REO INVENTORY

In Nevada County there were 595 REO and short sales sold from 5/31/2011 to 5/31/2012 out of 1,267 total transactions. That equates to 47 percent of all sales in Nevada County in the past year have involved a bank transaction where as 26 percent of all homes sold in the U.S. in the first quarter of the year were bank-owned homes and those in some stage of the foreclosure process. Nevada County is currently running at almost twice the national average.


Nevada County REO and short sales median price over the same time period was $175,000. Where the equity sales median was $244,000 or 30 percent more than the bank's liquidation price.


As of May 31, 2012 there are 115 short sales and REOs on the market out of the 502 listed in all of Nevada County.


Nationwide, when compared to non-foreclosure homes, the average price of a foreclosure sale was 27 percent below the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure or bank-owned during the quarter. Nevada County's 30 percent price discount is in line with the national average.


In the first quarter, U.S. short sales grew 25 percent from a year earlier, hitting a three-year high. In contrast, bank-owned properties declined 15 percent versus the first three months of last year, the firm said.
The trend indicates a greater likelihood that home prices will continue to soften, as foreclosures and short sales typically sell at sharp discounts to other homes.


It also suggests a shift in the way lenders handle mortgages that have gone unpaid. Lenders may be favoring short sales versus waiting for troubled loans to go through the foreclosure process to take back the homes securing the loan, said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.


"A short sale is a safer alternative to avoid any potential problems that they (lenders) face because of the way they're processing foreclosures," Blomquist said.


As of end of April, there were 637,668 bank-owned homes in the U.S. yet to be sold, representing a 17-month supply, Blomquist said. Another 722,467 were in some stage of the foreclosure process.


Sales of all previously occupied homes jumped in January to the highest pace in nearly two years, but declined slightly the next two months. Sales rose 3.4 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. That nearly matched January's pace of 4.63 million, but was below the nearly 6 million that most economists equate with healthy markets.

Scott Hopper - Realtor, 530.477.2277