It’s been a while since I’ve pulled foreclosure statistics for Greensboro. Frankly, I’ve gotten rather busy – listing foreclosures, ironically. These, along with the ‘civilian’ buyers and sellers with whom I work, have kept me hopping. But it has seemed over the last few weeks that the foreclosure has slowed a bit. This got me wondering about foreclosure listings in general in Greensboro. So, back to my data mining and spreadsheets I went.

Here’s what I found:

In the last couple of months, foreclosure listings in Greensboro have indeed slowed up. The number of foreclosures listed in the 9 residential Greensboro codes over the last 12 weeks has been 91. That is LOW compared to what’s been going on since I started tracking this data in 2008. Really low.

The same week last year the 12 week running total was 160. The year before that, 131.

The downward trend has been fairly steady since Spring, witnessed by this graphic:

And the listings are down not only by raw numbers but also by the percentage of overall listings. For some time the percentage of foreclosures in relation to all listings has been about 12% – 15% at any given time. The last six weeks the percentage has averaged  7%.

The week ending July 31, 2001 had only 2 foreclosure listings. Two?! That’s awesome.

Right?

Being a generally optimistic person, my recent receipt of a button that reads “Moody Bitch” notwithstanding, I’d like to think our trip on this awful roller coaster ride is coming to a close. But being optimistic doesn’t mean being naive. Almost certainly we’re going to to have another wave of foreclosed properties coming on the market.

A quick check of tax records show that there have been 15 foreclosures posted in these zips in just the last 4 weeks that aren’t on the market yet. And that isn’t including properties where “notices of default” have been filed but where foreclosures haven’t been finalized.

The numbers may be down due to several factors, the least of which is that the sheer volume of properties has overwhelmed the banks. There are only so many reps to handle the process – now that the robo signers have been laid off…

Still, a breather from the grim parade of distressed properties is welcome.

Here are the rest of the graphics. I guess you’ll be able to tell when foreclosure listings pick back up when I don’t have time to post about foreclosure listings!

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of October 30, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been tracking foreclosure activity in Greensboro. At first, foreclosures were, while not unheard of in Greensboro, were rather few and far between. As a matter of fact, up until late 2008, our MLS didn’t have a designation for when a property was listed as a foreclosure sale. I, along with everyone else, had hoped that the real estate market and economy was experiencing a momentary, if jarring, correction.

Well, if hopes were calorie-free pizza, we’d all be skinnier.

Not only are foreclosed properties and the impact that have on communities and the real estate market here for a while, they’re becoming commonplace. Over the last twelve weeks in Greensboro, about 18% of all properties listed have been foreclosures.* That’s a lot.

Comparing the numbers to a year ago and even two years ago shows that the trend isn’t improving. It’s actually going in the wrong direction. For instance, this week last year there were 6 new foreclosure listings in Greensboro. The year before that, 12.

This year there were 16.

And the rolling 12-week totals, what I believe to be a better indicator of things, doesn’t provide a rosier picture. There were in deed many more foreclosures listed in the 12 weeks leading up to this time in 2009 (293) than this year (178) but this is more than last year (166). And it must be remembered that in 2009, these properties were just beginning to hit the market. In the early and last quarter 2010, there were halts to new listings while either the banks were trying to catch their breath or, later, trying to get their ducks in a row. All indications are that foreclosures are going to be coming online steadily for the next couple of years.

Alas, hoping things were different won’t make them so. Hunkering down is about all we can do.

Although pizza can sometimes help.

More graphs for those who can't get enough of them:

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of September 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

It looks like there’s a teeniest reason for hope in the latest weekly foreclosure listings in Greensboro. Couple this with last week’s post about August home sales and seems start to feel positively positive.

I haven’t posted every week with foreclosure numbers but I have compiled them faithfully every Friday, pulling all new listings for the previous week. I’m here to tell you I see the beginnings of a real trend. There are just fewer listings every week than there have been*. The 12-week rolling periods is the most telling of the stats as far as I’m concerned and the graph at left shows that there has been a gradual but steady drop in the cumulative number of foreclosure listings in Greensboro.

Looking even further back, the week-to-week-to-week comparisons from 2008 through 2010 show a dramatic drop in listings.

This may seem like faint goodness, but things can’t start getting really better until they stop getting worse.

It’s too soon to say that the worst is behind us. There may be more waves of foreclosure listings ahead. But at least there’s a staunch to the bleeding. For now.

Here are the rest of the numbers:

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of September 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

There are things in life I approach gingerly and with my hands covering my eyes, fingers slightly apart, and squinting.

It’s an illogical thing to do in that I can see perfectly well through the gaps in my fingers and the squinting just makes me look funny. But there are times when you just don’t necessarily want to see what you’re going to see: scary scenes in movies, the number on the weight scale and, today’s topic, housing sales in Greensboro.

Well, I un-squinted and took a look at things.

The good news is, the August home sales were up slightly in August. The bad news? So was the number on my scale.

But that’s a story for another day.

Anyone who pays close enough attention to the housing market to read this blog knows that there was a fairly dramatic increase in housing sales in Greensboro – as well as most parts of the country – leading up to the expiration of the Federal Home Buyers’ Tax Credit back in June. And, as expected, sales dropped off pretty sharply in July. What was unclear was how things would look after that drop.

Here in Greensboro the answer is: better? (Emphasis on the question mark)

There were 205* closed properties in August. This was up from July (193)  but lower than March through June. August sales were just about what they were in December of 2009 (209). Not great. Not worse. So, in today’s world, ‘not worse’ equals ‘better’.

What surely does seem to be true is that prices have apparently bottomed out. And that really is better. Falling housing prices benefit no one in the long run. Not even those buyers who get the good deals. After all, no one wants to buy and then see the value of their purchase drop.

As this graph shows, while prices took a bit of a beating in the last part of 2009 and the first few months of 2010, we’re pretty much back to where we were this time last year.

Granted, this time last year was not as great as the hey-day period of 2007. July 2007, to be precise.

But the fact is the average closed price in August ’10 was $167,148. Not only is this very close to the July average closed price of $169,755 but is only about 1% lower than August ’09 ($168,152).

This is significant in a year when prices have been off as much as 11% in same month yearly comparisons.

So, while it’s not time to through a party, it may be time to start looking at things with cautious optimism – and not through squinty eyes.

Here are more graphs for those who love them. And you know who you are:

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of September 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

Tagged as: Greensboro foreclosures, MLS, Multiple Listing Service, Triad MLS

More of the same. Almost exactly the same, as a matter of fact. Of the new listings last week in Greensboro’s nine residential zip codes, 17 were foreclosures. That represents about 13% of the total new listings.

That’s not a great number.

But it is, alas, the way things have been for the last several weeks. Earlier this year, we might see about 8% or 9% of new listings be foreclosures but the last 8 weeks have averaged 13.2%. The highest was four weeks ago when 15.3% of new listings were foreclosures. Gag.

The only thing that might be a bit encouraging is that the number really is fairly steady in the 13% range. At some point the number will come down. I won’t be standing on one foot waiting for it, but it will happen.

Another sad-but-true consistent stat is that two Greensboro zip codes – 27405 and 27406 – continue to have the lion’s share of foreclosure: 44% cumulatively; 23% and 21% respectively. It should be noted, however, that back in October of 2009, these two zips had  more than 50% of listed foreclosures. This may be an indication of foreclosures impacting more areas of town more than things really improving in those two zips. Is the glass half empty or half full?

I just know that sometimes looking at these stats make me reach for a glass totally full. Of gin.

An even less uplifting number is 185. That’s how many foreclosures have been listed in Greensboro in the last 12 weeks. That’s more than have been in any of the previous 3 months of running 12-week totals. It isn’t surprising that foreclosures continue to hit the market. Lenders have been working through back-logs of delinquent loans for months and they’ll keep on processing them for some time. It takes months of non-payment for a lender to foreclose, then months more for the paperwork to be slogged through, then more time yet to get a property listed.

What does all this mean to you, dear reader? It means there’s still a lot of shaking yet to go on in the real estate market. Frankly, foreclosure listings will probably still be hitting the market for months after the unemployment figures rebound (for the previously mentioned time-frame reason).

So, I’ll keep watching and writing. You keep reading. And one of these days all of our glasses will be full.

Mine, probably still with gin.

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

Greensboro was recently named a “hot” housing market by Money Magazine. That’s nice and all, but what really matters is how many times pen is put to paper and properties close. By that measure, June was indeed hot for Greensboro real estate.

There were 348* closed properties in the nine residential zip codes in Greensboro. That’s up about 34% from June 2009 when there were 259 closed properties. (This is only slightly lower than June 2008, which had 388 closings, but down 19% from June 2007, when there were 428 properties closed….>meh<…)

This was the 5th straight month of improving numbers.

The average closed price is up as well, at $172,052 which is 5% higher than last June ($163,663).

The sales data by zip codes shows that almost all had year-over-year increase in sales. Only 27406 was flat. Two zips, 27401 and 27455 actually had more closings in June 2010 than in the previous two years.

The sales numbers for July will be a test, since the effects of the federal home buyer tax credit will have passed for the most part. But for now, let’s celebrate this hot, hot June.

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

While the current supply of listings is not the highest it’s been in Greensboro, it isn’t far from it. And the average list price is nearer the bottom of the range rather than the top.

What does all this mean to buyers, sellers and to those interested in their own property values?

It means things are pretty cruddy for you if are trying to sell your house and things are pretty good for you if you’re looking to buy.

This has been the case for some time now. (I would like to compare inventory and prices for this week compared to the same time last year, but I was so demoralized after months of bad news in 2009 that I took I hiatus from stats for several weeks. Now my pity party is over and comparative data will be the name of the game from now on – no matter how gross.)

This is not to say nothing is moving Properties are selling. In the next day or so I’ll post about the June sales numbers, which were higher than May as well as higher than last June. A large part of that is undoubtedly due to the late, great federal home buyers tax credit. But, still.

The long and the short of it is, if you want to sell your house, clean it, de-clutter it, make it smell nice and price it properly.

That last thing is key. The whole issue with so much inventory is that, if you have a house to sell, there are that many more people who have one to sell at about the same size, location, school district, etc.,  You have to make your home the one that buyers can most easily see themselves purchasing and moving into with the fewest hassles.

Getting back to the numbers, the 27410 zip code continues to have the lion’s share of listings: 674.

27405, 27406 and 27406 are neck and neck and neck with 443, 446 and 445. (27405 & 27406 also have the greatest number and greatest percentage of foreclosures.

The average list price for the week, including all property types, is about $222K. What will spending about that amount buy you? Here’s an example. (Click on the photo for more information):

2209 W. Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC $214,900 (MLS#572063)

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

I’ve added a metric to my weekly peak at the foreclosure listings: The percentage or overall listings are foreclosures.

For all the months and months I’ve been tracking weekly forclosure listings in the nine residential Greensboro zip codes, I’ve never looked this number.

Well, bad on me because that number may be as telling as any other about the state of the market here in town.

For the week ending June 20, 2010, there were 14 new foreclosure listings. There were 142 listings overall, meaning 9.9% are foreclosures. This got me to wondering about the historical trend for this measure in Greensboro.

As well as I can figure, pulling data from the MLS (from whence all my listing information has always come), 9.9% is fairly middling. Actually below the 12 week average of 11.8% of weekly listings. In those 12 weeks, the highest percentage was *gag* 17% and the lowest was 6.7%.

Looking back to the same 12 weeks last year and the streams begin to cross:

You can see that there were weeks last year when the percentage of foreclosures was quite a bit lower than now. But there was a moratorium on foreclosures for a spell back then. I was surprised to see, though, that the percentage of foreclosures on a weekly basis, other than the moratorium time, hasn’t changed appreciably since I started tracking way back in early September 2008.

That was the month things started feeling pretty weird, real estate-wise around here.

I would have thought that we would have seen a steady increase over all this time. Not so. Over these nearly two years of data, the average percentage of foreclosures listed has been 11.6%. Again, these are properties listed in the Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS). It doesn’t include properties sold on the courthouse steps or otherwise outside the MLS.

Still. It surprised me.

Oh well. Here are the rest of the numbers:

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

Those are the numbers, a snapshot of current inventory and the average list price for all 9 Greensboro zip codes.

Although 3300 properties is down from last week’s number of 3314 (and the previous week’s – 3304) the inventory number is still too high and the average list price is still off from where we were last year.

Some more details:

• The percentage of foreclosures overall is about 8%. This has been a fairly consistent number.
• The zip code with the highest number of listings is 27410. Again, nothing new there.
• The highest priced property is $3,500,000. The lowest is $12,000.
• Of the current listings, about 18% are ‘pending’.
• 85% are single-family
• 17% are townhouses
• 13% are condominiums

At this point what we will hope is that the inventory is leveling off. One the number of properties on the market being to decline, prices will at some point start to increase. The last couple of months have had good sales data. It remains to be seen how the next couple of months will treat the housing market in Greensboro. But whatever the news, you’ll be able to find it here.

_________________________________________________________

If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.