Here are some numbers on the reducing numbers of foreclosed homes in the Orlando area.

Anyone hoping to buy a foreclosed house in the Orlando area is going to have to look a lot harder than they did a year ago.

There were 656 bank-owned properties listed for sale last week, according to a weekly report from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. A year ago, there were about three times more foreclosures listed for sale, but many mortgage default cases stalled in the courts when lenders could not produce valid loan documents.

So far the dwindling supply of Real Estate Owned (REO) properties has not noticeably pushed up prices and that’s partly because appraisals are based on sales within the past six months.

The shorter supply appears to be helping families who are considering a short sale…banks have begun to realize that shorts sales maintain value a little bit better and maintain the property in better condition and so there’s less depreciation in the community.

While the amount of foreclosure listings is dwindling, the number of both short sales and regular, nondistressed listings is growing, the report showed.

The report also shows a gap of about 6 percent between the sales price and the final asking price and a gap of about 13 percent between the sales price and the original asking price prior to any price reductions.

The average original list price in Orlando for the last week of July was $216,642, and the average sales price for that week was $189,463.

If you are considering buying or selling a home here in Florida please contact the British Homes Group for more assistance.

Bill Cowie President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando, Florida

Kissimmee Office 407 396 9914

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

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In 10 states, average foreclosure discounts in the first quarter ran more than 35% below the average prices of non-distressed homes, says market researcher RealtyTrac in a report out today.

“There is massive discounting going on,” says Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac senior vice president.

Foreclosed homes in Ohio and Illinois drew the largest discounts, averaging 41%, followed by Kentucky at 39%. Other states with discounts of more than 35% were Maryland, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

In some of the big discount states, foreclosures are less numerous, so they’re less likely to pull down prices of non-distressed homes, says Celia Chen, Moody’s Analytics senior director. That makes the discount bigger.

In seven states with foreclosure discounts higher than 35% – Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin – foreclosed homes were less than 20% of first quarter sales, RealtyTrac data indicates. Foreclosures made up 28% of U.S. first-quarter sales.

In Nevada, foreclosures were 53% of first-quarter sales, the highest in the U.S. The average foreclosure discount was less than 18%. Foreclosures are more likely to drive down prices of non-distressed properties in Nevada because there have been so many, Sharga says.

First-quarter foreclosures were 45% of home sales in California, while the average foreclosure discount was nearly 34%. In Arizona, foreclosures were 45% of sales at an average 25% discount.

In states such as Ohio, foreclosure sales may be concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods while prices in higher-income neighborhoods are holding up better, Sharga says. That, too, creates a wider gap between prices of foreclosure homes and non-foreclosure homes, Sharga says.

Discounts are larger when homes have gone back to the bank. RealtyTrac says bank-owned properties averaged first-quarter discounts of 35%. Pre-foreclosure homes – often short sales, in which sellers and lenders agree to sell for less than what’s owed – averaged 9% discounts.

Florida “REO”s

Bank-owned foreclosed/repossessed properties are known as Real Estate Owned or “REO”s in US bank-speak.

BRITISH HOME SALES has a large selection of bargain-priced REO’s for you to choose from here in Orlando.

Let us help you choose one close to Disney!

Happy Bargain Hunting!

Sincerely,

Bill Cowie President

Orlando office 407 396 9914

Looking for a home in Florida? We do vacation rentals or can help with the purchase or finance of a Florida property. Request more information or submit a Custom Search Request for a listing of homes available in your price range.

The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida

November 7, 2010

From yesterday’s US “Stock Market Review”:

Why Should You Invest in US Bank Foreclosed Properties?
 
Bank foreclosed properties are not just for real estate investors who are in the habit of buying homes in clusters for maximum discounts. First-time home owners can also benefit from these distressed properties as offers instant equity at very reasonable terms. Others also purchase foreclosures to build wealth, using their existing home as collateral.

In fact there are many ways by which businesses and individuals can benefit from bank foreclosed properties. This is all because of the high volume of homes available and the fact that they are owned by banks who are not in the real estate business. This situation has created a buyer’s market where banks are willing to offer incentives and perks just to close a sale.

Bank Auctions

A way by which banks dispose these properties is through a public auction. Once a foreclosure is made final a schedule for an auction is published in newspapers and posted at the county courthouse. If you are planning on purchasing a home in this manner, you have to know that these are cash sales and the property cannot be inspected prior to the auction. But then there are other ways to conduct your due diligence check like driving down to the home and surveying its exterior as well as checking out its title in the court house.

Real Estate Owned Homes

Homes that do not sell at these auctions, and there are many of them, end up as properties of the bank otherwise known as real estate owned homes. Banks appoint a real estate broker to sell these homes for them. Buyers can make their offer through these representatives. This offer can either be accepted by the bank or this may be answered with the bank’s counter-offer. Buyers are allowed to make one last offer based on that counter-offer which the bank may either accept or reject.
 
Bank foreclosed properties for sale usually come with a title insurance and a minimum pest certification. The home will be free of former occupants as well as the bank will take care of eviction.

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“New” versus “Used?

And don’t forget – with the increasing availability of US developer mortgage financing – you can now buy not only a really inexpensive re-possessed Florida condominium but also, using exactly the same amount of cash as a deposit, you can own a brand-new townhouse or single-family villa ……. with a private pool in a great location close to Disney!

Just let us know and we we will help you find your dream holiday home in the Florida sun – and at the right price!

So call us now – while the Florida “Buyers Market” is at its peak!!

Sincerely,

Bill Cowie  President

www.britishhomesgroup.com

Orlando office – 407 396 9914

I hope you find this information helpful and I will continue to keep you updated on Central Florida’s Real Estate Market Trends.

Looking at buying a home somewhere in Florida? Use one of our easy contact links below. 

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By Mary Shanklin
Orlando Sentinel
9:55 p.m. EST, February 6, 2010

Distress sales now define Orlando’s still-slumping home market: Two-thirds of all resale closings in the metro area’s core market these days are either bank-owned foreclosures or lender-approved short sales.

But the proportion of foreclosures to short sales varies drastically between affluent and low-income neighborhoods.

In desirable areas, such as Windermere and Baldwin Park, homeowners are much more likely to salvage their credit record by getting their bank to approve a short sale, which allows them to sell their house for less than they owe on the mortgage. In high-poverty areas that attract fewer buyers, most financially strapped owners have no such option, so when banks foreclose on them, their credit is damaged for years.

“When you fill out an application for credit, you have to answer if you have had a foreclosure in the last seven years,” said Orlando real-estate agent Shaina Markulin, who has completed more than 200 short sales. “There are no questions on the applications, at least at this time, about whether you have had a short sale. … A short sale is absolutely a better option than a foreclosure, 100 percent.”

Landlords and creditors are more willing to work with people who have made an effort to pay their debts instead of those who appear to have walked away from their biggest financial obligation, she added.

An analysis by the Orlando Sentinel of fourth-quarter distress sales throughout Orange County found that about 80 percent of them were foreclosures in ZIP codes with disproportionately high numbers of renters and large numbers of families living below the poverty level – mostly black or Hispanic neighborhoods such as Pine Hills, Washington Shores and the Oak Ridge Road area.

In communities such as Windermere, Baldwin Park and Waterford Lakes, which are mostly white areas with little poverty and few renters, homeowners were more likely to avoid foreclosure. Only about 50 percent of the distress sales there were foreclosures. The other half qualified for short sales by showing evidence of hardship, such as a job loss, illness or death in the family.

Not only can those homeowners emerge from short sales with their credit relatively intact, their neighborhoods stand to recover more quickly because short-sale prices are typically higher than those of foreclosed properties.

A foreclosed homeowner, meanwhile, often faces seven years of credit challenges and even more difficulty finding a place to rent, purchasing a car or qualifying for a credit card.

“It also hurts the neighborhood more because there’s usually a vacancy period, where there might not be for the short sales,” said Claudia Colton, co-director for the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Redevelopment in Cleveland. Short sales take time for the owners, real-estate agents and bank representatives to negotiate, but the house is usually occupied during the process, she said.

Reasons vary for the sharp differences in foreclosures vs. short sales from rich to poor neighborhoods. Real-estate professionals and others say cash-wielding investors are the only buyers purchasing properties in low-income areas, and they typically wait until a house goes into foreclosure before making an offer on it.

Along Pine Hills Road in west Orange County, for instance, hand-lettered yard signs advertising “Investor Homes” dot the roadside. Some offer three-bedroom, two-bath block homes for less than $40,000.

“The price is not going to get low enough on the short-sale market to buy a house in Pine Hills,” said Fred Allen, past president of Central Florida Realty Investors. “Prices there got to $150,000 at the height of the bubble. … Now, investors will just wait till it goes to the bank and then buy it for $50,000 or $60,000.”

In contrast, said Allen, Winter Park and Windermere are much more desirable to buyers and therefore much more likely to generate short sales.

“Those are not rental properties. An owner occupant is going to want to buy there. Banks will get more for the short sale than for” a foreclosure, he added.

Neighborhoods with a disproportionately high number of rentals are particularly susceptible to foreclosures, said Debra Wilkinson, an Orlando real-estate lawyer. Though homeowners may have an emotional attachment to their home and try to save it from foreclosure, landlords are more likely to see the house as a business expense and stop making payments once it no longer makes financial sense. Also, landlords have become notorious, she said, for leasing their properties, collecting the rents but then failing to pay the mortgage companies.

Low-income areas have also suffered more because the pool of potential buyers there has dried up since the meltdown of the subprime-mortgage market. Four or five years ago, Colton said, renters who lived in those neighborhoods were able to purchase houses because lenders eager to benefit from the homebuying frenzy did not always verify incomes for their high-risk, high-interest subprime loans. Now those residents face increased unemployment and have no financing available to buy a house, she said.

It remains to be seen, Colton said, but the country may reach a point where a foreclosure on someone’s credit history no longer carries the stigma it once did. Already, rental experts report that some apartments are easing standards that used to preclude leasing units to prospective tenants with a foreclosure on their record.

Five years ago, foreclosures may have carried more weight, Colton said, but now they’re increasingly common.

For more information contact info@britishhomesgroup.com or Telephone (407) 396-9914

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Orlando Foreclosures – Feb 7th & 8th

For more information on the Orlando Sentinel sponsored event please visit www.foreclosuresexpo.com and then call 0800 096 5989 or +1 407 396 9914 or email info@britishhomesgroup.com if you would like us to email you some of the best homes from the show.