With the number of bank foreclosure properties on the rise it has become more and more challenging for a traditional seller in the Sparks market. Foreclosure sales have almost doubled since April 2008 when they made up just 25.25% of the homes sold. In June and July foreclosure sales were 49.51% and 46.50% respectively, beating out traditional sellers in both months. Sales for traditional sellers saw a 3 month slide from April to June but rebounded slightly in July.
The number of short sale transactions that have successfully closed has been on th decline since April, almost 50% from April to July. This is most likely the result of an overwhelming volume of sellers trying to get overloaded banks to negotiate short sales on their properties without much success. Many buyers have not had the patience to wait for lender approval on these short sales and many of these properties have gone back to banks and returned to the market as short sales.
What this means for sellers is that your competition is primarily bank owned and short sale listings. In April we saw an almost 50/50 split between traditional sellers and short sale/bank owned listings. In the months to follow that has shifted in favor of the more motivated sellers - banks and short sales, in May 55.56%, in June 67.30% and July 59.40%.
So sellers this is your que to pay attention to the pricing of the bank owned and short sale properties. You must be priced competitively to get your home sold in this market.
