Atlanta Foreclosure Report: April 2011
Foreclosures notices for April 2011 in the Metro Atlanta market dropped by 28% from March 2011 and 18% from April 2010. What does this mean for the foreclosure market here in Atlanta? Well ... as much as we'd like this to mean foreclosures have seen their peak, it's more reasonable to assume the precipitous drop is due to recent changes in lender requirements.
Pervasive problems with improper paperwork led many lenders to slow down the filing process. They're now taking extra steps before advertising properties for foreclosure; making certain to dot all the "i's" and cross all the "t's". Those extra steps, though necessary to protect the legal interests of big banks, are causing homes to sit longer before hitting the market as REOs (real estate owned).
This months totals are the lowest since February 2009 ...
Here's a quick breakdown of the top 5 counties and their totals:
Gwinnett County led with 1,567 total filings. Right behind Gwinnett is Fulton County with 1,463. DeKalb posted 1,240, Cobb 958 and Clayton had just 631.
Discussion
Any decrease in Atlanta real estate foreclosures is certainly good news. Let's hope this is a sign that the market is starting to turn! You have some AWESOME featured listings, I bet they go quickly.
Curious, I don't understand the realtytrac.com or foreclosure.com business models. You'd think that banks would want maximum exposure of their foreclosures, to maximize bidding and speculating to increase their recovery of a loss.
However, whenever I come across a foreclosure in Zillow, I need to pay somebody a subscription to get information. So - I skip it. It seems like a real lose/lose for everybody involved. Am I missing something??
Atlanta is definitely saturated with foreclosures, both condos and single family homes. Hopefully these will keep moving and we can work towards a more stable market.
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