Nearly 20% of Portland Homes in Distress Sale Status

I have viewed hundreds of homes this year and it’s become very common to show one or two short-sale and bank-owned properties to a client during a given tour. That’s because nearly 18% of active listings fall into one of those categories — around 2,600 total across the Portland metro area.

Approximately 14% of active listings are short sales and 4% are homes already foreclosed upon and returned to the bank (REOs). The worst hit areas are Gresham, Beaverton, and Happy Valley, where a quarter of the inventory is either a foreclosure or on its way.

One caveat: Many of the properties in short sale status have offers pending, but lender response times for these transactions can take several weeks, even months. Therefore, the short sale inventory lingers in active status much longer than typical transactions.

Here’s a breakdown by market area, as of May 27, 2009.

Area
Bank-Owned Properties
(Foreclosed)
3rd-Party Approval Needed*
(Short Sales)
Beaverton / Aloha
5%
21%
Gresham / Troutdale
7%
19%
Milwaukie / Clackamas
6%
19%
Southeast Portland
5%
17%
Hillsboro / Forest Grove
3%
18%
Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Wilsonville
3%
17%
Oregon City / Canby
3%
15%
Northeast Portland
4%
13%
Columbia County
4%
12%
Lake Oswego / West Linn
3%
9%
Yamhill County
3%
9%
North Portland
2%
9%
NW Washington County
2%
9%
West Portland & Downtown
2%
8%

*Third-party approval usually means a bank must approve a sale. Sometimes it means the property is in an estate and requires approval by an executor, but I scrubbed most of those properties out of the data.

If dabbling in distress properties is your cup of tea, drop me a line and I’ll send you the list of properties in the areas you’re interested.

Data courtesy of RMLS.

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May 29, 2009 · Filed Under Market Activity, Mortgages

Comments

6 Responses to “Nearly 20% of Portland Homes in Distress Sale Status”

  1. Uncle_Git on May 29th, 2009 10:43 am

    If you compare and contrast Oregon’s foreclosure curve with California’s 18 months ago it’s eerily similar. I know a lost of people don’t subscribe to my same roller coaster just a few cars back theory – but the stats seem to be rolling in right on track.

    The good news is it’s sunny out, it’s Friday and I’ve a batch of fresh berry infused vodka tonics ready to imbibe this evening ;)

  2. Ron Ares on May 29th, 2009 3:28 pm

    I’ve been meaning to emulate Clint’s CS graphs, but haven’t got to it yet. They certainly paint the scenario you’ve been prophesying.

    The tonics sound delish … must have missed my invite ;) Enjoy!

  3. Andy on June 1st, 2009 10:26 pm

    Wonder whether this is a good time to buy investment property

  4. Uncle_Git on June 2nd, 2009 1:28 pm

    I’m going to have to vote on on that.

    With 20% of sales being distressed and unemployment increasing further price pressure is bound to occur.

    You’ll get a much better deal in a year or two.

  5. yuan on June 2nd, 2009 5:57 pm

    “You’ll get a much better deal in a year or two.”

    And maybe even better in 3-4 years. (neg-am loan resets peak in 2012)

  6. metrolink » Blog Archive » National Register of Historic Places listings in Southwest Portland, Oregon on June 7th, 2009 2:30 am

    [...] Nearly 20% of Portland Homes in Distress Sale Status | Portland … [...]

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