This is a brief note about the  REO activity in Clark County Washington.

I have seen some neighborhoods with a large percentage of REO activity.  If your are not aware, REO stands for Real Estate Owned.  Lenders like to hold a mortgage that is receiving regular payments.  They do not like to own the property they have made loans on.  But, if the borrower does not make the payments in full and on time, a likely outcome is that the lender will end up owning the property, thus: REO.

The local market conditions are mixed.  There seems to be a strata of REO activity (foreclosure sales), a strata of people who are not in default, but have to move fast, so have offered big discounts to sell the house quickly, and the rest of the market, which appears fairly normal.  (This, by the way is empirical data and not based on statistical studies.)

At this time the market is so mixed that it is still difficult to tell just what way the market will go.  That is; will it get back to that “normal” posture I mentioned above?  Or, will REO grow and cause further softening?  We have to wait to see.

I went to Grand Ridge in Camas the other day.  I looked at an REO property.  In the MLS there were no sales in Grand Ridge in the last six months and 19 houses currently for sale.  It is looking like recovery will be slow in that development.

There are others like that example.  And, there are others where the activity seems quite normal with the only apparent difference from a year ago being that longer marketing times are required.

Ralph Olsen, Appraiser

Pacific West Appraisal Services, Inc.

pwas.net

Popularity: 37% [?]

Share This