Shadow Inventory … is it real??

By Jerry Robertson August 13, 2012 Investments, News Worthy

I hear questions all the time about the shadow inventory. News stories talk about it and the doomsayers ‘warn’ us that it will cause the next decline in home sales. Because real estate is always a local story it is possible for everyone to be right depending on where they are talking about.

We are a non-judicial foreclosure state. All that means is that while the ones that have to take borrowers to court to foreclose and evict, we do not. We sign over a security deed that we all call ‘you don’t pay, you can’t stay’ documents. It’s really pretty easy to foreclose in GA if the borrower does not stay current on the mortgage. I will say it slowed down some but we never stopped the foreclosure train like they did in Florida and New York so we don’t have all the inventory that those states do.

I just read some other info from Freddie Mac about the shadow inventory too and how it is declining. Check out the article for yourself but the gist of it is that the shadow inventory is falling.

While we are not at the lowest levels on the chart above we have dropped considerably from where we were. You can see and feel a lot less inventory in the Gwinnett Co. area as we work with buyers in this market. Most deals are multiple offer and the inventory is moving fast.

Some of my listings this summer went under contract in less than 5 days and closed in less than 40. It’s a good time to be selling if you have the equity or even if you are upside down and want to talk about a short sale. You will have to demonstrate a need in a short sale but it is more possible now than in the past. Banks are more likely to allow a short sale as they will net more money at the end of the process.

One bit of interesting date is that overall we have only 3 1/2 months of inventory in Gwinnett Co. That means we are in a decent ‘sellers’ market.

All that being said, the market here is good to great depending on the person looking at it. Buyers are able to buy at a great price and great interest rate, investors can find property that will cash flow really well and sellers that need to sell see multiple offers many times and we know they are getting the best price possible in this market.

Call me if you have questions or need some more information. I am here to help.

Thanks for listening,

Jerry Robertson | Associate Broker
Keller Williams Realty | Atlanta Partners
678-231-1578 Cell | 678-935-1342 FAX

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