After more than two years of very bad news there is a glimmer of light on the horizon.  The rate of notices of trustee sales that have been filed in Clark County Washington have fallen drastically.  And, there appears to be a sustained trend.

The chart above covers the time from January 2005 through October 2009 in Clark County Washington.

You can see how the rate of foreclosure filings hovered around sixty per month during 2005 through 2006.  Then, in the beginning of 2007 some jitters became apparent.  Then, over the next two years it was up, up, up, until the rate reached 486 per month in June of 2009.  And, as you can see the trend has been a steep decline since then.  The figure for October was 174 notices of trustee sales.  That is only 36% of the June high.

The trend line is still down.  Let’s hope it continues in that direction.

Of course, commercial real estate is following the residential markets.  There are lots of commercial/office spaces that are empty.  Shorter term loans and a very soft market are having a very negative impact on commercial properties.  So, we are not out of this real estate collapse yet.  But, we have some positive statistics in the residential sector.

Ralph K. Olsen

Pacific West Appraisal Services, Inc.

pwas.net