Interesting Changes
In the past two years I’ve been watched and listened as agents went from having “inventory overload” to complaining that there isn’t any inventory. The reality is that there is inventory, but it’s not the ubiquitous foreclosure inventory that we once thought was such a burden.
Especially true in the Prince William area, I recall agents voicing concern about the overwhelming number of distressed properties and how unsalable they were. Then the media and home buyers started picking up on the knowledge that prices were pretty good. Now that area is suffering from a lack of well priced homes as defined by their recent experience.
Enter: Shadow Inventory
Reuters.com reported on December 17th, 2009 that the pending supply of homes not yet for sale has jumped from a year earlier, and is now around 1.7 million homes, being held by banks. This “Shadow Inventory” is up from 1.1 million the year before. As ominous as that number sounds, First America CoreLogic says that’s still only a 3.3 months supply.
First American CoreLogic said the visible supply of unsold inventory, which measures the unsold inventory of new and existing homes that are currently on the market, was 3.8 million units in September, down from 4.7 million a year earlier. The visible months’ supply fell to 7.8 months in September, down from 10.1 months a year earlier.
As much as we’re hearing about the economy showing signs of slight improvement, there are still indicators that there is a sever imbalance between Supply and Demand for housing.
It seems that many REO agents are looking around and asking for more inventory as well. It’s funny how at one point, we’re grumbling on our way to present that REO offer, and now we can’t get enough of them. Most agents will take a REO over a Short Sale, any day.
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