Posts (RSS)Discounted Foreclosed Homes for Sale in Las Vegas
Potential homebuyers seeking low-priced foreclose homes for sale flocked to Las Vegas, Nevada where they try to have a part of the over 1 million properties in the city’s foreclosure inventory. In 2008, repo properties in the city reportedly peak over 1 million and the figures are expected to reach 1.2 million in 2009.
The foreclosure crisis may have wreaked havoc on the lives of thousands of homeowners. But some may find opportunities in the large number of foreclosed home auctions for sale, with most distressed properties offered at discounted prices.
Last March, two thirds of the city’s existing home sales were bank-owned properties. Larry Murphy, a housing analyst at SalesTraq said that bank owned dispositions have outnumbered acquisitions for the first time. He explained that there were 2,376 dispositions and 1,846 acquisitions, with a total of 15,954 bank-owned inventory.
He noted that banks have become savvy with their real estate-owned (REO) pricing by making a list of foreclosed properties at below market value. He added that this strategy is a way to create a competitive bidding among interested parties to bring in multiple offers and get a better price for the foreclosed homes for sale.
According to SalesTraq, the median sale price of a foreclosure home last March was around $127,500 while properties that were REOs were priced around $149,900.
About 50 percent of big banks in the country failed the U.S. government’s Supervisor Capital Assessment Program, a study of the present and expected bank capital requirements.
According to Foreclosures.com President Alexis McGee, banks and lenders need cash and their growing portfolios of foreclosed homes for sale is one way for them to get that much-needed money. She added that if banks price their REOs right, it could mean good and profitable deals for homebuyers on REO foreclosure inventory.
She pointed out that now is the right time for investors and homebuyers to pressure banks to release their phantom bank-owned inventory. She explained that phantom inventories are properties repossessed by lenders that are not listed for sale on Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Meanwhile, the number of bank owned listings in Las Vegas has been decreasing since last February following foreclosure moratoriums by government-controlled mortgage insurers, Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
However, with the lifting of foreclosure moratoriums, the number of foreclosed homes for sale is expected to increase in the second quarter of this year.