Foreclosures Soar Despite Effort to Delay Them

This is an excerpt recent Free Press (Jan 14th) article that includes our company president's remarks about the effect more foreclosures coming on the market may have on the numbers of buyers looking for properties in 2010. Experience has shown that these buyers are often disappointed by the condition of foreclosed properties and once they have decided to buy, will look to private owned properties for their purchase.

Foreclosure filings in Michigan jumped last year even with a freeze on foreclosures, suggesting that 2010 could be another rough year in a state where one out of every 38 households is in foreclosure. Michigan ranked 1/8 nationwide for its foreclosure rate in 2009. ( national rate of 1 foreclosure /45 households).

Properties heading for a sheriff's sale shot up 55% last month from the previous month, indicating some of those homeowners initially helped by the moratorium were headed toward a bank repossession, anyway.

RealtyTrac data indicates that more than 900,000 properties nationwide are held by banks, but 450,000 of those are not on the market for sale.

In Michigan, housing inventory has fallen from a high of about 60,000 homes on the market in the spring of 2008 to about 31,000 for sale now, according to Dan Elsea, president of brokerage services for Real Estate One in Southfield. Elsea said a significant portion of the reduction in inventory comes from fewer bank-owned homes on the market. He said he expects up to 10,000 additional foreclosures to hit the market this year. "The good news is as inventories rise, more buyers come out to play, so we can expect that to increase sales activities over what would have normally occurred," Elsea said.
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