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Distressed Inventory Report Delayed

Hello everyone. I am traveling this week and spending some family time. However I will have a Distressed Inventory Report but it will be later in the week about Wednesday. From what I am seeing I bet it is holding steady.

Also the monthly numbers are in and you should take a look at those.

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Weekly Scorecard 5-3-10

The news this week is the high sales volumes and drop in inventories. East Bellevue saw its inventory go from 275 homes to 250 homes. South Bellevue saw a similar drop with a drop 367 to 355. West Bellevue did see an increase from 220 to 232 homes. Sales volumes, both pending and sold, were high. South Bellevue had 20 closed sales and 13 pendings. West Bellevue where the sales volumes had been low saw a jump with 6 closed sales and 5 pendings. When you look at the spreadsheet you will see that the prices as usual are very sticky but a review of the sold inventory shows some of the bank owned homes which were in pretty sad shape are starting to move.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 5-3-10

Tags: Bedllevue Homes, East Bellevue, pending, sold, South Bellevue, West Bellevue
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Distressed Inventory Report 5-1-10

Things seem to be churning. East Bellevue which saw its distressed inventory climbing saw another slight drop this week while West Bellevue had a jump up in both notice of trustee sales and foreclosed inventory. South Bellevue was holding steady but saw its foreclosed inventory reduced and the notice of trustee sales increase. Overall it looks like things are tending a little bit towards an increase in distressed inventory with the addition of the new notice of trustee sales. However it does look like the area which had seen a run up in distressed inventory, East Bellevue, has now peaked and is churning its inventory.

As I stated in my first of the year predictions I thought we would end 2010 on an up note but that first we had to work through those people who had drained their resoruces hanging on and that we would see some downward movement. I think that is what we will see the next three months a gentle rise in distrssed inventory and a peak in September. Let’s see if that happens.

Tags: Bellevue Homes, East Bellevue, Foreclosed, Notce of Trustee Sale, South Bellevue, West Bellevue
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Frontier Bank

Last night the Feds came in and closed Frontier Bank. In my opinion this is an example of how the regulatory system caused this problem. Frontier Bank had a private investor a number of months ago will to put in over 500 million in new capital. The reason the deal didn’t go is because it pass regulatory approval. I am not sure about the reason given other than the fact the Feds felt the private equity partner was acquiring too much of the bank. The bottom line is the FDIC puts much more restrictive requirement on private equity than they do tax payer funded take overs and bail outs. This deal should have been allowed to go forward and given a chance. The worst that would have happen is that the 500 million would have been used up in write downs on their new construction assets. The best that would have happened is that new management would have expanded the franchise and potentially avoided the financial collapse. Frontier has a good local franchise and branch network. Instead what we have is a case where the government has shout down the bank at a cost of 1.8 billion. The irony is now that the Feds are being more lenient with private equity and probably would allow the deal. The only good news is that Union Bank from California has acquired Frontier. They are looking for a local presence so hopefully they will keep most of the branches in place and keep making loans to the small businesses which was Frontier’s main source of revenue in addition to real estate lending. Hopefully this will cause the least disruption in jobs and with new capital they can supply the needed credit to these small businesses but the bottom line is this deal cost the tax payers 1.8 billion that it should not have.

Tags: Frontiewr Bank
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Weekly Scorecard 4-26-10

Well at least I am getting this weekly post done within the week. Good news is that things seem to be getting busier. Overall some of the same trends continue with increasing inventories and steady sales. The pendings this week appear to be up and very few short sales or bank owned homes. The Sellers that are in the market appear to be accepting market pricing. East Bellevue saw a jump in listed invetories to 276 from 268. The other areas held steady. I expect the inventory numbers to be peaking and hold steady but let’s see what happens.

The other big issue affecting the markets in the next couple of months is the expiration of the first time buyer tax credit. On the Eastside my antidotal observation was that generally the homes that qualify at around $300,000 are bank owned and in horrible shape and those homes have been mainly picked up by investors or fix and flip buyers. Condos on the Eastside have benefitted from the first time home buyer tax credit. My personal opinion is that low prices and low interest rates have more of an effect on housing than the first time home buyer tax credit. Local companies seem to be doing better and that seems to be supporting sales for now with the low interest rates and house prices.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 4-26-10

Tags: Bellevue Homes, East Bellevue, inventory, Low Interest rates, pending, South Bellevue, West Bellevue
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Distressed Inventory Report 4-24-10

Some areas up some areas down but overall things seem to be leveling off or trending down. East Bellevue which had a spike up in inventory in past weeks had the opposite a spike down in distrerssed inventory. If you want a short sale go to South Bellevue where they had a spike up in the Notice of Trustee sales and also listed short sales. West Bellevue overall had a slight drop. It appears things are leveling off but with soft demand it is taking a while to sell off this inventory. The one thing I notice at the street level is that short sales seem to be getting done quicker; closer to 120 days instead of 180 days. You can see this in the fluctuation of the Notice of Trustee Sales.

The spreadsheet is link is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 4-24-10

Tags: Bellevue Homes, Foreclosed, inventory, notice of trustee sale
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