Short sales, foreclosures making up high percentage of areawide housing sales

Last week I wrote about Fredericksburg-area housing sales in March. Here is the article. 

This week I’ve been working on an article about short sales becoming increasingly common. Ernie Dill, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Elite who handles many short sales, sent me this supplemental data showing how many distress sales and listings there were in this area last month.

A short sale occurs when the home sells for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. Realtors say banks are increasingly accepting these. See Saturday’s article in the FLS business section for more. Here is the data from March for Fredericksburg, Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford.

• There were 2,660 active listings at the end of March.
• Of that number, 210 were bank-owned foreclosures. That’s 7.9 percent of all actives.
• Short sales comprised 311 listings, or 11.7 percent of all actives.
• Thus, 19.6 percent of all active listings at the end of March were distress sales.
• 341 homes sold in March.
• 164 of those sales were bank-owned foreclosures, or 48.1 percent of all sales. There were 28 short sales, or 8.2 percent of closings. 
• Hence, 192 home sales, or 56.3 percent of the total, were distress sales.
• Distress properties: 521 listings, 192 sales. 2.7 homes were listed for every sale.
• Non-distress properties: 2,139 listings, 140 sales. 15.3 homes were listed for every sale.

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