Year-to-Date Distressed Sale Trends - Quick Q & A

Question: After reading so many gloomy reports about "shadow inventory", does that mean there are more distressed sales this year than there were last year around here?

Answer: NO. Through May, short sales and foreclosures accounted for 27.3% of all sales in the MRIS area. This is down from 36.6% over the same stretch last year.

Question: Are both categories (short sales and foreclosures) down year-over-year?

Answer: NO. The percent of sales that are short sales is up slightly through May, from 12.9% in 2011 to 13.7% in 2012. Fortunately, the rate of foreclosed sales has gone down substantially. Foreclosures made up 23.7% of sales in Jan-May 2011. Through May 2012, foreclosures are only 13.6% of sales.

Question: Great, but surely there must be a handful of counties within MRIS that have seen at least a slight bump up in foreclosure sale rate?

Answer: WRONG. We looked at the 45 counties that average at least 15 total sales per month. All 45 counties saw a decline in % of foreclosures. Click the thumbnail below to see YTD 2011 v YTD 2012 comparisons.

Question: How many counties have seen an increase in the percentage of short sales?

Answer: 26 out of 45, or 58%, of the counties analyzed have had a higher percentage of short sales through May than the same period last year. Click the thumbnail below to see the full list.