Jim Sexton’s Video

What a difference a day makes (or was it just a system quirk). On 2/1, I was about to report that January’s closings were below 6000 for the first time in a year. But since yesterday was a busy news day (more on that later), I was unable to write or report on my first January data pull. So in preparation for reporting today, I updated my report and was shocked to have 678 more sales for January. Oh well, I report the numbers, I don’t make them up; so here goes based on my 2/2 reading for January’s closings.

1/11 had 6540 closings down 22% from Dec 10; up 13% from Jan 10. 1/11 had 3103 REO closings which is 47%; Short Sales (SS) had 1498 Closings or 23%. 1/11 prices averaged $157,000-down 2% from Dec 10; the Median was $110,000 down slightly from Dec 10. We are now in the ‘double dip’ for prices, as January’s prices are below the previous bottom (April 09). This is happening because of the prices for REO sales, which in January averaged $111,000 or $46,000 less than the average for ALL sales. The percent of REO sales was down slightly last month but SS were up. The Distress sale (REO + SS) percentage stayed at 70% of all sales.

On the Foreclosure (FC) front the monthly activity compared to Dec 10 was as follows:

• Notices were up 18% to 6783;
• Completed FC were up 30% to 4585;
• Cancelled FC were down 3% to 2945;
• Active Notices were down 4% to 39,958;
• Bank Owned properties equal 19,411 up 3%

The increase in completed FC is the beginning of the ‘catch up’ for the banks’ 60 moratorium, which was lifted in early December. Otherwise 1/11 tracked closely to 1/10 with the exception of the number of Active Notices is down almost 10,000 or 20%; and Bank owned inventory climbed 5000+ or 31% in a year.

Yesterday was a busy news day because of all of the announcements: AAR’s monthly magazine published all the form changes effective 2/28 complete with sample forms and FAQ’s; and then AAR and DRE published their new announcements concerning Short Sale Negotiators, MARS and fees. These announcements contained lots of NEW information to be aware of and absorb. Certainly it will be changing the industry as licensees need to comply with the Short Sale changes by 3/1/11. More on www.aaronline.com.