All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™

Welcome to our weekly edition of Real Estate Investing News This Week. Highlights this week include:

  • We’re starting to get a glimmer of how much “Shadow Inventory” is really out there.
  • Corelogic reports that home prices are up 12 percent.
  • Opinion from RealtyTrac: The 15 best cities for buying fixer bargains.

We hope these real estate news items help you stay up-to-date with your real estate investing strategies and inspire some profitable real estate deals for you.

Report: Shadow Inventory Looms Large for GSEs, HUD

Esther Cho reports:
“Shadow inventory held by the GSEs [Government Sponsored Enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] and HUD “vastly” outnumbers REO properties the groups maintain, according to a joint report from the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency and HUD.
The report further warned HUD and the GSEs must pay close attention to shadow inventory, which threatens to increase their supply of REOs.
For the report, shadow inventory was defined as properties 90-days or more past due but not yet in foreclosure
According to the report, as of September 2012, HUD held about 37,445 REOs in its inventory, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had about 158,138 REOs, leading to a combined total of 195,583.
Meanwhile, the GSEs held 966,649 properties in their shadow inventory, while HUD was found to have 741,384 homes still in the shadows, for a total of 1.7 million properties.
For the GSEs, the ratio of shadow inventory to REO inventory was about 6-to-1, while shadow inventory for HUD was 19.9 times greater than REO inventory.”

CoreLogic Report: Home Prices Rise 12.1 Percent Year Over Year in April

On Tuesday, CoreLogic® released its April CoreLogic HPI™ report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 12.1 percent on a year-over-year basis in April 2013 compared to April 2012.
This change represents the biggest year-over-year increase since February 2006 and the 14th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally.
home prices rise 10%
Highlights as of April 2013:

  • Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were:  Nevada (+24.6 percent), California (+19.4 percent), Arizona (+17.3 percent), Hawaii (+17 percent) and Oregon (+15.5 percent).
  • Including distressed sales, this month only two states posted home price depreciation:  Mississippi (-1.7) and Alabama (-1.6 percent).
  • Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: Nevada (+22.6 percent), California (+18.3 percent), Idaho (+16.4 percent), Arizona (+15.3 percent) and Washington (+13.9 percent).
  • Excluding distressed sales, no states posted home price depreciation in April.

Click here to access the full Corelogic Home Price Index Report >>>

Commentary & Opinion:

15 Best Cities For Buying Fixer-Upper Bargains

From RealtyTrac:
“Low-priced foreclosure homes are still plentiful in many markets,” said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president.
“While these homes may be in need of more work than a typical home and are certainly harder to find now than in previous years, buyers and investors willing to put in a little extra legwork and sweat equity can often find the best deals in their markets on these foreclosure fixer-uppers.”
A RealtyTrac analysis found that nationwide there are more than 51,000 potential foreclosure fixer-uppers: bank-owned homes that were built before 1960 and with an estimated market value below $100,000.

Click here to check out the RealtyTrac list >>>