1 out of 5 Portland homes for sale is a foreclosure

I caught this article by Ryan Frank when I was catching up on his blog recently:

"1. 18% of PDX listings foreclosure, short sale: I had someone run the numbers yesterday and they're not pretty. The Portland region in RMLS has 14,328 active listings. Of those, 641 are forecloses that have been taken back by the bank. Another 2,297 are listed as requiring a third party approval. Most of those are short sales. But being conservative, say 2,000 of those are short sales. That leaves 2,641 foreclosures or short sales on the market, or nearly one of every five listings"

I'd love to track this statistic as I belive it's a real window into the health of our market. I know California is in worse shape, but I'd like to know if we're seeing more or fewer foreclosures and short sales these days.

Any disgruntled real estate agents want to share their RMLS data for a little fun with numbers? I don't expect to see this from the RMLS anytime soon.

EDIT - I didn't need to get the raw data, Ron Ares ran the same basic report I was thinking of. You can find it on his site here.

Price Reductions and Equity Dipping - 5789 SW Salmon St.

Bearlee sent this in:

How's this for price reductions and equity dipping: MLS#8009198

http://www.rmls.com/RC2/engine/reportGenerator.asp

I drive by this one on my way to work each day. Initial listing price $450K, reduced to $399K, and now listed at $300K.

Purchased 08-01-1989 for $35,950.

And now it's a short sale.

The property is located at 5789 SW Salmon St. It's listed at 1476 sq ft, but PortlandMaps only shows 720, so I can assume the basement was finished without a permit. No photos of it either.

I wonder where all the money went?

Reader Sightings: 5838 NE 14th

A reader sent this in:

"Listed at $270K, bought for $305K in 2006… ouch.

5838 NE 14th Ave, Portland

More details"

I also like Trulia's new feature that incorporates Google Maps into the page, which makes it easier to see if there is an ugly monstrosity next door.

I swear I'm seeing more and more short sales these days. I know they make up about 5% of the local market, but it seems like there are more out there.

Free Fall Friday - 4340 SE Madison

Here's another house with an interesting history. 4340 SE Madison.

The house sold for $305k in February 2006. It then sold again for $541 in June 2006 (with 100% financing!), a gain of 77% in just 4 months. It went into foreclosure and was bought back by the bank for $355k in October. Last month it sold to the proud new owner's for $295k. That's 45% off it's high!

Unfortunately the property taxes adjusted upwards to reflect the new $541k price, jumping from $2858 to $4373 in 2007. Ouch.

I don't have insights into what happened along the way, but judging by the state of the pool it was likely vacant for a period of time. Any Realtors out there know the details of any of the recent sales?

I also start to question Zillow's methodology with cases like this. If you look at their home value chart (you'll need to click on the 5 year view for the best picture) it was quick to reset upwards with the sale in June 06, but hasn't come back down to reflect the recent sale price. And after all the best indicator of what something is worth is what someone else will pay for it, in this case $295k, not $496k.

What's that smell you ask? Something between fishy and fraud methinks.

Free Fall Friday - 632 NE Russell - $550k

Here's another case of "instant equity". It looks like this house was bought for $314,550 in 2004, with about 8% down. The house was refinanced on 3/31/2006 for $504k (a 60% increase in 15 months!) with a second loan of $116k taken out on 11/10/2006 for a total of $620k.

It's now for sale for $550k. $70k instant equity!

It's now listed as a short sale, and gotta love the marketing "Charming 4-Square on the edge of Irvington! " Yup, the edge of Irvington would be Elliot. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

"Unfinished attic & basement are framed & plumbed w/good height. Room for garage to be rebuilt. Sale is subject to lenders' approval of a short sale."

Oops, we ran out of money before we finished the attic or basement. But hey, it's got granite countertops!

MLS# 8013821

Are Short Sales a Good Deal?

BLOG.FranklyRealty.com: Short Sales Are "Fake Listings." Only 5% Close!

I saw the post above today on short sales, which reminded me of this conversation we had a few weeks ago.

Has anybody here tried to buy a short sale? I expect to see more of them as foreclosures increase, but they always seemed to be fraught with danger to me, and Frank confirms that.

33% off in Irvington - 2817 NE 24th Ave.

I stumbled across this bungalow this weekend, which is currently offered "subject to a short sale" at $450k, down from the previous selling price of $675k.

MLS ID# 7092039

Any tips from those in the know?

Free Fall Friday - 47% off

Here's a shocking short sale that I ran across recently.

This house sold for $422k on 5/22/06, and then it sold again for $565k on 9/01/06. It was 100% financed, and according to the listing it still needs work!

I can't imagine who would pay $565k for this 1660 2224 sq ft. house in this neighborhood, so I'm wondering if some sort of fraud was committed, especially to get 100% financing.

It's now bank owned, and the bank is trying to sell it for $299k, which means someone took a bath on this one.

This listing is here:

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=58567666&ListingID=31403742&Sort=0