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Nevada foreclosure sales rise sharply in March
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Nevada foreclosure sales jumped sharply in March, rising 109.5 percent from February on a daily average basis, Discovery Bay, Calif.-based ForeclosureRadar.com reported Tuesday.
Notice of default filings rose 9.7 percent from February overall, but decreased 10.4 percent on a daily average basis after adjusting for additional days in March. Notice of trustee sale filings increased 24.9 percent month over month, but just 3.1 percent on a daily average basis.
More significantly, real estate-owned, or bank-owned, sales skyrocketed 159.8 percent, and sales to third parties jumped 143.8 percent from February 2011.
Even when viewed on a daily average basis, those increases were dramatic, with a 53.4 percent increase for sales back to bank and a 50.3 percent increase for properties sold to third parties.
One of the reasons foreclosures fell in February was a lower-court ruling against Recon Trust, a major trustee for Bank of America, said Mark Skilling, chief operating officer of ForeclosureRadar. The order was overturned by a federal court in February.
"This month, we see a little yo-yo action going on because sales are back up dramatically," Skilling said. "You're kind of back to normal in terms of sales back to the bank."
Las Vegas saw 2,120 homes go to foreclosure in March, the largest gross count in more than a year, he said.
Average time from notice of default to foreclose rose to 322 days in Nevada, up 16.3 percent from the prior month and longer than anywhere else in ForeclosureRadar's coverage area, Skilling noted.
Clark County REO sales soared 166 percent over February and third-party sales rose 140 percent. However, foreclosure filings also rose 10.47 percent for notices of default and 27.11 percent for notices of sale. Inventories in the county changed less than 10 percent from last month.
In Washoe County, REO sales rose 126 percent and third-party sales were up 160 percent over last month. Filings rose less than 10 percent and bank-owned inventories rose only 5 percent.
Anna-Lena Thomas of Windermere Real Estate in Anthem Hills wants to know why banks aren't foreclosing on more homes. Are the homes tangled in title issues or are the banks just going to put one house on the market at a time to make more money?
She found 64 homes with more than 2,400 square feet in the Green Valley Ranch subdivision that had received a notice of default, some as early as 2008. Only four are listed as short sales and none of them show up as notice of trustee sale, or foreclosure.
"The rest are just sitting out there, vacant or not, but no one is making the payments," Thomas said. "It's OK to not make your payments. Banks don't want to sell cheap. Our market bottom looks really long. People are afraid of deficiency judgments and don't want to short-sell."
Skilling of ForeclosureRadar said the Realtor is "dead on" with what's happening. Actual REO inventory hasn't increased that much in Las Vegas and there's no greater pressure on banks to release them than there's always been, he said.
"The dilemma the bank faces is they may have to recognize losses if they sell REOs. The servicers that are working for them are making money, so there's not a lot of pressure to move that inventory into the market," Skilling said.
Foreclosure sales in California increased 35.1 percent overall, but rose just 10.5 percent on a daily average basis.
A report from Equity Title of Nevada, prepared by Forrest Barbee, showed 2,099 REO sales in Las Vegas in March, or roughly half of total sales, at an average price of $112,482. Short sales, or homes sold for less than the principal mortgage, totaled 1,443 during the month (24 percent) at an average price of $138,544. Available REO inventory remains steady at 2,809, while available short-sale inventory was 7,601.
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.
| Clark County foreclosure trends | |||
| March 2011 | Feb. 2011 | March 2010 | |
| Notice of default | 4,694 | 4,249 | 7,469 |
| Notice of sale | 5,683 | 4,471 | 6,480 |
| Cancellation | 2,656 | 4,448 | 1,596 |
| Back to bank (REO) | 3,068 | 1,153 | 1,970 |
| Third-party sales | 901 | 375 | 523 |
| REO inventory | 13,982 | 13,049 | 10,768 |
Source: ForeclosureRadar.com
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This is called the law of unintended consequences from knee jerk decisions interfering in the free market.
Funny how these stories are push to the back, but when there is a VERY slight gain the RJ screams it from the rooftops. It's so true, Journalism is dead.
Any time there is a sales rise in anything, it is good news. Less foreclosure homes in the pipeline (as more get sold) means prices MIGHT eventually go up, once the glut is cleared. In 10 years. Call me an optimist...
gbigs;
get a grip......you are sounding whacky...
The people gbigs refer to were all renters prior to the "NINJA" mortgages that the greedy banks gave out in wild abandon. 85 percent of Nevadans are still working,just back to being renters as before.This correction will iron itself out over time. Vegas is definetely overbuilt at present,however as new housing starts are almost nil the empty houses will slowly fill up with people living "within" their means once again.Just follow the cycles and buy low sell high!!
Get out while you can...
all the baloney, cheer-leading, and double talk do not change the basics. vegas is headed toward massive empty tracks of homes, and widespread vandalism will soon start when more and more people are made homeless.
Scum lenders won't even give loans so no wonder. We bail them out, they screw consumers to the wall. Wonderful system. I want to know why the people responsible for this are not in jail. I can assure you that if the common citizen perpetrated this kind of fraud they would be sitting and rotting in jail. Guess the common folk don't have enough money to buy their way out of that kind of mess like the folks at the banks, lenders, etc. Nice justice system.