Foreclosures: Lenders Slashing Prices

Lenders stung by the housing bust are slashing prices dramatically to rid themselves of an unprecedented number of foreclosed properties, sparking bidding wars in some places that harken back to the market’s go-go years and may signal the bottom is near.

The trend is more dramatic in some parts of the country where prices skyrocketed during the housing boom and are now falling precipitously. Sales of foreclosures, vacant new homes and other distressed properties now dominate some markets, causing grief for individual homeowners who need to sell for other reasons, like a job in a new city.

Nationwide, one out of every four sales between January and March was a distressed sale, and that figure jumps to more than 50 percent in the hardest-hit areas.

Over the past year, as the housing crisis accelerated, the number of properties turned over to bank ownership more than doubled. As of April, there were more than 660,000 such properties in the U.S., up from 254,000 in April last year.

With lenders slashing prices on foreclosures at record paces, now might be a good time to contact us to see if there are any foreclosures in our market that you could get a good deal on. You never know til you ask.