Foreclosure Inventory
I am often asked about the foreclosure market here in North Texas. A great tool in understanding how much change we have seen over the last 18-months in regards to foreclosures is CoreLogic's National Foreclosure Report. According to CoreLogic's May report, foreclosures are on 31 months of consecutive year-over-year decline. In simply terms, May 2014 represents a 37% decline compared to May 2013 - and 9.4% year-over-year decline. While it is true that TX is represented in the top 5 states of foreclosure volume in the last 12 months, we are also among the lowest by percentage of inventory. TX's foreclosure inventory represents .07% versus a national average of 1.7%.
Does this mean the "foreclosure" market is in permanent decline?.. I would be very hesitant to say such... many factors affect real estate, both in the short term & long term. And while in TX (a non-judicial foreclosure state) our inventory has moved quickly, there remains a "backlog" of inventory in many parts of the country. Likewise, in many areas, we can still see Mortgage Delinquency Rates (a "precursor" to foreclosures) remain higher than historical averages.
All that said, at least in the North TX market, a buyer offering that they "just want to look at foreclosures" may have (as we say in TX) some very slim pickins'.
- Christie Cannon
