Portland Foreclosures and Short Sales Cut in Half

Foreclosures are all but disappearing from the Portland housing market as home values continue to rise. In fact, the percentage of homes on the Portland real estate market that are up for foreclosure or already owned by the bank has fallen in half over the past two years!
According to new data from the RMLS, bank owned or short sale homes represented just 3.3% of all new Portland area listings in the second quarter of 2016. In the same time period in 2014, that figure was nearly 7%.

Here’s a closer look at the numbers from the RMLS. The first number is the data from the first quarter of 2016, followed by the comparable 2014 figures in parenthesis.

For the Portland residential real estate market:

• 12,870 new listings (22,345 in 2014). Of those:
  • .7% were short sales (2.9%)
  • 2.6% were bank owned/REO (3.9%)
• 8,987 total sales (12,797). Of those:
  • 1.2% short sales (4.4%)
  • 4.3% bank owned/REO (6.4%)

Right off the bat, you might notice that the total number of new listings and sales is significantly less now than it was in 2014. Taking 1% of 13,000 is different that taking 1% of 22,000, so let’s look at some actual numbers:

• In the second quarter of 2016, approximately 335 foreclosed homes came on the Portland real estate market (.026 x 12,870).
• In the same time period of 2014, there were more than 870 new listings for foreclosed homes (.039 x 22,345)!

Just to review, a short sale is what happens when a homeowner owes more on their mortgage than the home is worth and the bank is threatening to foreclose. They can list their home for market value — which is why real estate values across the Portland market play such a key role in this process — and walk away owing nothing. Judging from the fact that barely any came on the market this quarter, yet they still made up 1.2% of total sales, I would say that there is definitely strong buyer interest in picking up homes in short sale status.

The sale of a bank owned (REO) home is much more common (2.6% of all new listings in the second quarter 2016, compared to .7% being short sales). By the way REO stands for Real Estate Owned, which is confusing, but what it actually means is that a bank, government agency, or other lender owns the home. These are homes that have gone through the entire foreclosure process, and now the lender is trying to sell the property on the public market.

Are you in the market to buy a Portland short sale or foreclosed on home? Remember that negotiating these sales is much more complex because banks and lenders have their own sets of rules — as well as their own glacial timeline — to abide by. Especially now that foreclosures are starting to disappear off the market, agents with experience dealing with this type of sale might be equally hard to find! Check out our short sale and foreclosure certified Portland buyer’s team. Also, if you need to short sale your home, check out my short sale listing agent page to learn about my certifications and experience with handling short sale transactions for Portland real estate home owners.