According to a RealtyTrac report, 20 percent, or 167,000, of American homes are abandoned after foreclosure.
The report says that states with long foreclosure timelines contain higher numbers of vacant foreclosures. Florida and New York have 55,503 and 9,173 vacant foreclosures, and Illinois has 17,672.
In addition 544,274 bank-owned homes have been foreclosed but not sold to a third party. More than 650,000 foreclosed homes have not been vacated by the homeowner will likely be short sales, auction sales or bank-owned sales, which brings the foreclosure-related inventory of RealtyTrac to almost 1.4 million.
RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist said that it is imperative that these properties move quickly through the default process to cushion surrounding real estate values, but in many states, that’s not happening.
According to the report, 29 percent of the vacant foreclosures are valued below $50,000, 25 percent are in the $50,000-$100,000 range and 12 percent are in the $1 million-plus range.
Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, GMAC and Citi are the companies with the most vacant foreclosures.
However, Blomquist claims that he sees some positive in this.
“Somewhat ironically, efforts to slow the slide of the housing market in previous years are now hampering a smooth recovery by holding back inventory of homes that almost certainly must sell in the future but are not yet listed for sale,” said Blomquist. “This includes homes in foreclosure that have been vacated by the homeowner, which account for one in every five U.S. properties actively in the foreclosure process, as well as more than half a million bank-owned homes.”
Blomquist said that even if all of these foreclosed homes flooded the market simultaneously they would likely not cause the once-feared double dip in prices given supply constraints from non-distressed sellers and stronger demands.
The states with three of the four longest foreclosure timelines – Florida, New Jersey and Illinois – have all had laws that have come into effect in the last six months that are helping the foreclosure process go by a lot quicker. According to Blomquist, this will help provide some extra supply and possibly help reduce the threat of another housing price bubble that is forming in these markets.
Source: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/owner-vacated-properties