Bellevue Real Estate » foreclosure

Distressed Inventory Report 3-12-11

George Thurtle — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:23:25 +0000

Another downturn this week in the overall amount of distressed inventory. Generally it should be going up but it looks like a lot of things have worked through the system. Overall the amount of distressed inventory (Bank Owned Homes and Notice of Trustee Sales) is at 307. Down from its near term peak of 317 two weeks ago and down from the long term peak of 422 homes in August of 2010. However while it does appear to be leveling off the amount of the drop is not convincing and the overall numbers could be “basing”. It looks like this could be a case of the “muddles” as looks like they could be a new range of of between 300 to 350 homes but lets see.

The listed inventory is also down for both bank owned and short sale. There does not appear to be new listed inventory coming to the market all except for West Bellevue. In that area there were two new homes. The interesting thing about West Bellevue is that the least expensive bank owned home is $1,549,000 and they top out at almost $5,000,000. This is a switch where before the bank owned inventory was at the lower end. Also in South Bellevue a waterfront came on the market at almost $3,000,000 in Kennydale.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 3-12-11

Distressed Inventory Report 9-25-10

George Thurtle — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:54:08 +0000

I keep getting behind on my dates but hopefully will be able to catch up next week. Definetly the two trends that developed in September of peaking inventory and a lot of churning regarding the NTS is continuing. The 98008 saw five new NTS but an overall drop in the NTS from 52 to 39. This antidotally corresponds to what I am seeing in the office with short sales being processed in a much more timely manner. There was one just done in our office on the Bank of America’s Equator system in less than 45 days. The Equator system seems to be getting much more efficient processing these short sales more like a reverse loan and the numbers appear to reflect that. Also I think the banks are finally dealing with reality and would much rather do a short sale than actually own the home.

A streamlined approval process for short sale has been something I have been advocating for a long time and it appears to be gradually being taking hold in the banking industry. Another sign that the banks seem more willing to short sale is the fact that the number of foreclosures appear to have stopped climbing. East Bellevue is now down to 160 distressed homes compared to a peak of 235 homes in the July 24th report.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 9-25-10

Distressed Inventory Report July 3, 2010

George Thurtle — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:06:28 +0000

The numbers keep rising. Not as dramatic as last week but definetly the trend continues to see the amount of distressed inventory increasing especially the Notice of Trustee sales. It looks like the lenders have geared up and made the decision to start foreclosing. The most notable trend not showing in the numbers is the average price of the homes having their Notice of Trustee sale. In the last couple of years the homes being foreclosed were mainly at the lower end of the market. Now this week there are a number of homes over$1,000,000.

The other interesting thing to view in the numbers is that while there is a ballooning inventory of distressed inventory the amount of listed foreclosed bank owned homes is an all time low. However in about 90 days this inventory should start making its way through the system. What has happened now is that the last wave of inventory was cleaned out given the robust sales in the spring. Banks are having problems coping with the volumes and it will take some time to bring inventory to the market.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 7-3-10

Distressed Inventory Report 6-26-10

George Thurtle — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:20:17 +0000

The Notice of Trustee Sales (NTS) keep climbing. This week saw the largest increase in distressed inventory so far. It looks like the lenders are moving more aggresively to foreclose. The main charaterstic of the increases this week is that they occured on individual single family homes not on builder projects as occured on the big increase in inventory previously. In the past week there were 12 new NTS in the 98008 zip code and in the 98004 there were 8 homes this week. The 98004 zip code had been fairly resistant to distressed inventory but saw 8 new NTS this week alone. This is a huge increase.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 6-26-10

Distressed Inventory Report May 15, 2010

George Thurtle — Sat, 15 May 2010 13:59:54 +0000

Not much change but a slight drop from the big spike up last week. Still looks like the trend is to creep higher. Also the April numbers are in and you should check those out.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 5-15-10

Distressed Inventory Report May 8, 2010

George Thurtle — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:06:00 +0000

Well I have been gone for the week and just got back but a lot has happened. The numbers have taken a big jump up but that is mainly due to a couple of condo projects brining units to the market but even without those units coming to the market there was an overall increase. In East Bellevue Homestreet Bank filed a notice of trustee sale on a condo covnersion project known as Champagne at Bellevue. This project should never have been contemplated it was a marginal 1970s low density surface park apartment buillding that was converted to condominiums. In my opinion this project should be sold by Homestreet as an apartment building and not try to sell as condos. Even in the best market this project would have struggled. In West Bellevue a speculator at Washington Square that actually closed on some of its units is now having them taken back and a notice of trustee sale has been filed. Tomorrow I will be updating this activity for the week of May 9th.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 5-9-10

Distressed Inventory Report

George Thurtle — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:11:00 +0000

It looks that the servicers are starting to get more active. The numbers are up for foreclosures and NTS. This is the firt “spike” that I have seen. The last weeks since the first of the year the numbers had been treading water going up or down a little bit. This week definetly is the first big uptick. Since the first of the year I had been hearing from the a couple of the trustee servicers; these are the guys who actually do the sale; were saying that there was more volume coming down the pipeline. The issue was a lot of foreclosures were being deferred because of the new Washington State law which requires the lenders to show a good faith effort to contact the borrower and make a good faith effort to seek an alternative to foreclosure. This requirement has added a 30 days to the process. It now takes a minimum time of 220 to foreclose after the initial default. Many situations are stretching to a year or more after the initial defalut. A property that has had its Notice of Trustee Sale posted has already been through the process since the sale date had already been set.

What is interesting is that a survey of most of the inventory shows that a great majority of the foreclosures are at the lower end of the price range no matter what the area. There is very little new construction since maost of that inventory left has been foreclosed and sold and there is no replacement inventory being built. In vestors looking for rentals or someone looking who is willing to put some effort into fixing up a bank owned or short sale property looks like they will have some opportunity.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 4-3-10

Distressed Inventory Report 3-27-10

George Thurtle — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:59:56 +0000

Treading water and churning a little bit. 98005 saw a jump with four new NTS occuring this week. There havn’t been jumps like this since last summer. However overall East Bellevue and West Bellevue was up a little bit but South Bellevue was down two homes overall. Need to see the trends over the next couple of weeks to se if this a plateau or a base.

Here is the spreadsheet: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 3-27-10

Distressed Inventory Report 3-20-10

George Thurtle — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:12:58 +0000

The character of things changed a little bit this week. Overall the amount of distressed inventory is down slightly with the amount of foreclosed homes being down overall. However the notice of trustee sales is up in certain areas: 98008, 98004 and 98006. Also the amount of listed distressed inventory continues to rise both foreclosed and short sale. This is good news to get this inventory on the market. Presently it looks like the sale of homes is about even with those coming on. Looks like the passengers on the boat are able to bail water about as fast as it is coming in.

Here is the apreadsheet: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 3-20-10

Distressed Inventory Report 1-30-10

George Thurtle — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:56:11 +0000

The trend continues. East Bellevue (EB) had a big jump in overall distressed inventory which went from the 113 homes the week before to 123 homes this week. This week alone there were 8 new Notice of Trustee Sale (NTS) alone. It does look like the lenders are getting geared up to take these homes back. South Bellevue (SB) also saw an increase of total distressed inventory from 52 homes to 55 homes and this week 5 new NTS. Last week there were 4 new NTS. What is surprising is that there wasn’t a bigger jump in inventory given the new NTS. Things seem to keep selling but not as fast as the new NTS notices are coming through. West Bellevue was the exception. It saw a decrease from 51 to 55 homes. with the number of NTS overall being down. As a matter of fact customers I am working with are frustrated there is not more upper end distressed inventory. In WB there is only one bank owned home listed.

A disturbing trend is starting to emerge. The middle calss neighborhoods such as are in EB are really starting to take the brunt of foreclosures. The 98008 zip code in particular. The higher you go in price the less the problem and in fact in WB the problem appears to be easing. While I maintained the real estate recovery was going to be a top down recovery in this area, this is not good news overall. Something needs to be done to put people back to work. Our GDP increased 5.7% this week over the last quarter but compared to last year for the same quarter it was little increased but the most distressing part is that same GDP was created with about 3,000,000 fewer jobs. Shrinking our way to propserity will not work and eventually will cause the economy to begin contracting again. This is the message the stock market has finally figured out.

Here is the spreadsheet: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 1-30-10