Buying Foreclosure Homes for Sale in the West
Buying foreclosure homes for sale in the West is a good investment decision because home prices are still at low levels, based on a report from the National Association of Realtors.
In 13 states in the West, particularly Arizona, California and Nevada, the median home price in August has dropped to $220,500, over 12 percent below the median home price in August 2008. Total house sales in the West climbed up by almost 1 percent compared to July sales.
Total house sales in August also marked a nearly 5-percent rise from sales in August last year. According to analysts, sales were driven by efforts of first-time home buyers to beat the federal tax credit deadline.
Celia Chen, a top executive at Moody’s Economy.com, said that foreclosures are still a big part of house sales in the West. She added that the big drop of home prices in the West compared to 2008 prices has been pushing up the number of people buying foreclosure homes for sale for their own use or for investment purposes.
Based on the monthly housing report of The Associated Press and Re/Max, several metro areas in the West showed home sales increases in August. These were San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boise and Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, other Western cities such as Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, Honolulu, Anchorage, Billings and Albuquerque posted declines in home sales compared to August 2008.
Nationwide, based on a report from the National Association of Realtors, foreclosures accounted for around 31 percent of overall house sales in August. But in some states in the West, foreclosure sales comprised the majority of home sales.
In Arizona and California, foreclosure sales and short sales comprised over 50 percent of total house sales in August. In the state of Nevada, a staggering 80 percent accounted for distressed sales.
Because of the big increase in number of home buyers in the West, inventories of bank-owned houses have been dropping. In Phoenix, only about 18 percent are bank-owned now out of all types of homes available on the market.
As home sales increased in August, the average number of days properties stayed on the market dropped in July and August in many metro areas in the West, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Denver.
A big real estate broker in Arizona said that about 25 percent of its home buyers in August were first time home buyers. The rest were people buying foreclosure homes for sale, people moving to Arizona and residents moving up.
Related Posts:
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- Foreclosed Houses for Sale Drove Home Price Declines
- Cheap Foreclosed Homes for Sale Aplenty in Florida
- Foreclosures Give Rise to Cheaper Homes
- Sales of New Homes Dropped as Foreclosures Increased
