Current Forelcosure Market Evaluation For Seattle
August 9th, 2010
Let us start off with a few knowns, so everyone has a foundation of relationship to the foreclosure situation here in the Seattle area. There are roughly 134,000 households in the city limits of Seattle. Year to Date there have been 3399 foreclosure filings (2.5% of the total population has had a foreclosure filing). Remember in the state of Washington a Lender can file foreclosure Default or Notice of Default on day 31 of a home owner’s mortgage payment being late. Also Out of that 3400 hundred homes over the past year only about 35% actually make it to auction to sell. The other 65% will usually remedy there notice which a home owner can do anytime, by paying their default amount. They can get their foreclosure stayed, or hopefully they also have received Loan Modification Counseling, so their payments have become more affordable.
This brings me to a small piece of advice. When you are doing foreclosure searches; remember just because a home owner has received Notice of Default; Does not mean the home is for sale and/or will actually going to auction.
Here is a Chart Showing the Number of Notice of Default given vs. A 30 year fixed interest rate (avg 4.74%). This is for the idea the interest rate are a correlate to the foreclosure defaults… Which I have yet to see… Interest rates are low, and people still can’t afford the loans they were given…
The next Chart shows the avg sale price for retail homes Vs foreclosure homes. The average Sale price for a Home in Seattle is $409,000.00. This home will be on average 1550 sqft, built between 1910 and 1950. That is an average price per sqft of $259.00. We know this city has tons of neighborhoods that are far more expensive than that. The average foreclosure sale price is $279,000.00. Understand a majority of the homes that are in foreclosure and for sale are in the South Seattle area where property values are far cheaper than the average retail sale price. So don’t even begin to think you are going to roll into Fremont or Ballard and purchase a foreclosure home for $279,000 that is 1550 sqft.
I am sticking to what I say to all my clients when they ask me what I think will happen with this market… “The Data Shows me; We will Be Boucing on the Bottom through the end of 2011. No worse or better…There will be small peaks and values, but all within a simular range.”
