"Distressed" Properties Account For 1 In 4 Houses For Sale

There are currently 1167 stick built houses on less than one acre of land in the Bend area listed for sale in the MLS of Central Oregon. Of these, over 25% are showing as distress sales, meaning either a "short sale" or "bank owned" property.

A transaction is considered a "short sale" when net sale proceeds (sale price less transaction fees) yield less than what is currently owed on the property. In order to close the sale, the property owner must either pay the difference between the net sale proceeds and what is owed or get the lien holder(s) to accept less than the amount owed. There are 196 stick built houses currently listed as a "short sale," accounting for nearly 17% of the available inventory of houses for sale.

In addition, there are 99 houses in Bend owned by a lender and listed for sale. This represents 8.5% of stick built houses currently listed for sale in the area. In most cases, the lender has come in to possession of the property following a foreclosure proceeding.

Of the 66 closed sales of stick built houses on less than one acre in the Bend area in January, 29 (or 43.9%) were reported as distress sales.

Banks Announce Foreclosure Freeze

3 of the largest banks in the U.S. announced earlier today that they will suspend foreclosure actions on principal residences for at least a few weeks while Congress and the Obama administration work on crafting a plan to stabilize the financial system.

J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, each of which have recently received billions of dollars from the federal government's TARP plan, issued separate announcements Friday disclosing their plans to institute temporary moratoriums on new foreclosure activity.

Read the article from the Wall Street Journal here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123454524404184109.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us_business