Real Estate Investing

I printed out a report today that showed foreclosures in select cities and counties from across the country, as well as homes in preforeclosure.  It made me pretty grateful for where I live.  For example, an agent who previously worked in my office was chatting with an agent still here.  The former told the latter (old guy told one still here) that he’s vacationing in Florida right now.  I don’t know *where* in Florida, but am guessing the Miami area since his family is from there.

The agent on vacation said that a whopping 60 percent of homes in that area were in foreclosure and an additional 15 percent were in short sale.  Therefore 75 percent of all homes for sale in the part of Florida he’s vacationing in are distress sales.  That truly boggles my mind.  In Southeast Michigan, I heard there were 80,000 foreclosures in 2008.  In my own middle Tennessee area, we’ve had 4500 homes in foreclosure.  Ours is peanuts compared to these other areas.

Meanwhile, for some real numbers Market Graphics Research Group released a report to my company which shows  houses listed “active” for sale as preforeclosure homes and bank held homes on THAT ONE DAY - December 4, 2008.  And I’m going to cherry pick from the report:

Birmingham, Alabama
7 preforeclosure
840 bank held

San Francisco, California
10,473 preforeclosure
21,101 bank held

Durango, Colorado
1 preforeclosure
23 bank held

Indianapolis, Indiana
9075 preforeclsoure
9,855 bank held

Kansas City, Kansas
901 preforeclosure
9,295 bank held

Lexington, Kentucky
674 preforeclosure
398 bank held

WAIT!  Here’s Southeast Michigan
15,667 preforeclosure
63,948 bank held
79,615 total (not 80,000 but close enough)

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
94 preforeclosure
9,603 bank held

Jackson, Mississippi
4 preforeclosure
33 bank held

Omaha / Lincoln, Nebraska
93 preforeclosure
1,447 bank held

Charlotte, North Carolina
2,666 preforeclosure
4,418 bank held

(Note that Asheville, NC numbers were a fraction of Charlotte’s)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
971 preforeclosure
2,385 bank held

Memphis, Tennessee
94 preforeclosure
7,557 bank held

El Paso, Texas
102 preforeclosure
756 bank held

Lynchburg, Virginia
1 preforeclosure
8 bank held

As I’ve said a gazillion times before, it’s quite clear that all real estate is local.  The national media reports over and over about how bad the housing market is - and in many instances they are correct.  However, not ALL markets are bad.  And again, you don’t get your local weather report from the national media, do you?  Check with your own local real estate expert to learn what kind of shape your area is in.  Then proceed as a truly informed buyer or seller!