So I guess this is good news? The foreclosures are getting picked up faster so hopefully once their numbers get down to a more normal level, the market will stabilize.

Nate, the market will stabilize when the 2-3X price:income ratios reassert themselves along with income stability in general.

iow.. the RE market won't "stabilize" until after everything else has "stabilized".

I'm curious what the numbers would look like if the analysis were just based on owner-occupant buyers.

May very well be the same, just curious whether it's investor driven at all.

Me too, Andrea. I don't think the MLS has any way of recording whether the buyer is going to occupy or not, unfortunately.

There are definitely a lot of investors out there buying foreclosures.

Nate - still a LOT more foreclosures to come. At least a couple years worth. The last of the adjustable mortgage rates from the bubble era are just adjusting this coming fall... most of those foreclosures won't hit the market for at least another year. Banks are delaying things, bc until they foreclose they can count the mortgageas a performing assets. Once they foreclose, they have to take the losses. Banks have been trying to space out the losses.

From what I heard Wells Fargo is now doing, it will get even worse years to come. Apparently they are still granting mortgages to clients with below 600 Fico scores in exchange for higher down payments. Now the DP will put more proverbial skin in the game for the buyer. I don't see how that equates to how a buyer who clearly doesn't pay their bills on time by evidence of the very poor credit score will somehow make timely mortgage payments over a 30 year period.

When recording and paying transfer tax in MD, an owner-occupant gets a reduction for saying so. If you count how many are saying so, and subtract it from the total, you get owner-occupant vs investor numbers, duh?

Hah, jeb fries, are you offering to do that hand count? :-D

I do analyses for my blog in my spare time. I'd need a computer-assisted way to get the figures, and I don't know of one that would tell me how many of the foreclosures were purchased by people who do not intend to occupy the property. The state tracks transactions by owner-occupant and non-, but the datasets I've gotten from the assessment agency don't include a notation about whether the property was a foreclosure.

Next time I ask for a data update, I'll see if that's gettable.

Chappy, I gthink yhour conclusins are a tad off. Interest rates for mortgages have gone down. I had a 5/1 that adjusted earlier this year. My payment actually went down, as did the rate from like 5.5 to like 4.5.

@baltimoregeof - What calculations? A lot of the mortgages I'm talking about had teaser rates of 2% or less for the first few yrs. In other cases, there were negative-amortization or interest only loans being made. There's still plenty of those to re-set.

And, as I noted, banks are delaying short sales and foreclosures as long as possible. It's hardly uncommon for people to stay in a house well over a yr while making no payments.

One last thing--Maryland will just start to feel the pain of a tighter federal and state budget in the next few yrs. Compared to other states, MD has been doing very well riding out the storm... but with the whole debt ceiling thing, it was revealed just how dependent MD is on federal money. Some of that is going to start to dry up. Over the long run, tighter budgets mean less fed govt workers, less contractors, lower salaries in related areas, and ultimate less demand for housing.

No calculation is involved, this is all just common sense and basic economics. Only a realtor would try to confuse things and argue against these basic facts.

Just a sign of the times. It is going to take years to pull through this muck. I wish it weren't true, but we have a long road to hoe.

@Chappy10

Whoa no need to cheap shot Realtors, I'm one and I completely agree with what you're saying!

@concerned - I was just pointing out that people dealing with ANY economic transaction need to consider that there are different incentives at play. If you want to know if there is still a big backlog of foreclosed homes or soon-to-be-foreclosed homes coming to market, dig around and talk to people you trust. Ask for statistics and learn about the process. Don't go ask someone (realtors in this case) who might have an incentive to tell you something that suits them. And, if you do ask them, press them on it or get a 2nd (and 3rd, 4th, 5th opinion).

Realtors are there to sell properties or to sell the idea of owning a home. They're not there to handle your financial planning or teach you about the US economy. Some can do it.... but few and far between.

This is really scary. I'd like to see our government taking steps to force lenders to deal with homeowners in trouble more responsibly. If we are going to get through this real estate mess then we are going to need some leadership.

Cory Hill