More Bank-Owned Properties Coming Your Way

Posted on 02/13/09 10:07 AM

Oregon among top 5 of states with most foreclosures in nation

RealtyTrac, arguably the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its January 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing (default, auction, REO) reported during the month. For the first time Oregon is among the top 5 states with the most foreclosures. With foreclosure filings being recorded for one in every 357 homes, Oregon’s January rate surpassed economically depressed foreclosure hot-spots such as Michigan (1 in 397) and Illinois (1 in 363), where $5,000 price tags for homes have made headlines in recent months.

# of Foreclosure Filings Per State (1/every x HH rate):

1. Nevada (1 in every 76)
2. California ( 1 in every 173)
3. Arizona (1 in every 182)
4. Florida (1 in every 214)
5. Oregon (1 in every 357)
24. Washington (1 in every 874)

Here’s what the situation looks like by county (click for details):

Notices of Trustee Sale (NTS) for January on par with Nevada

A “Notice of Trustee Sale” (NTS) follows the Notice of Default and signals that the property is essentially heading for the auction block. For the month of January the number of properties with “Notices of Trustee Sale” filings in Oregon totaled more than 3,750, closing the gap on places like Nevada (4,500) – home to the ubiquitous foreclosure bus!

Not all properties with a “Notice of Sale” filing end up at auction. In Oregon homeowners have 120 days to re-instate the loan. However, for the vast majority the auction block will be the next step. The Property is usually awarded to the highest bidder who meets all the criteria set by the Trustee. In spite of the fact that Trustee sales/auctions are open to the public, most foreclosed properties in Oregon currently revert back to the bank.

No. of bank-owned properties in Multnomah County on the rise

For the month of January there were 708 REO (bank-owned) filings in Oregon. If Oregon does indeed lag behind other real estate markets, as many have argued, then it stands to reason that we will soon see a similar ratio of REO-to-NTS as some of the other members of the top five club. In Nevada, where this has been going on for a while there are currently 3,848 REO and 4,500 NTS filings resulting in an REO-to-NTS ratio of 0.85. Apply this figure to Oregon’s 3,750 NTS filings and you are looking at roughly 3,000 REOs – four times the current volume! Granted this is probably the worst case scenario, but the days of REOs as a fringe-phenomenon in Oregon real estate are certainly over.

Interested in getting into the bank-owned/REO game? Drop me a note!