Report Finds REOs Outselling Foreclosed Properties

CoreLogic, a provider of information, analytics and business services, has released its U.S. Housing and Mortgage Trends, a report that provides data on housing sales, valuation, negative equity, shadow inventory and foreclosure activity and trends. The latest trends report from CoreLogic shows that homeownership rates for the 25-34 and 35-44 prime homebuyer age cohorts are down almost 10 percent in 2010 compared to 1980. Since July 2011, equity values have dropped more than 10 percent and home prices have been flat. U.S. Housing and Mortgage Trends also shows: ►Median income fell by 2.3 percent from 2009 to 2010, and real median income has declined more than seven percent since its peak in 1999. ►Of the foreclosure properties that were auctioned in 2006, 66 percent became real estate-owned (REO) properties. Once in REO, 85 percent have only sold once and have not gone back into REO. ►The REO recidivism rate within five years of the initial REO sale is only two percent. ►Investors have shifted from buying properties at foreclosure auctions to buying properties at REO sales, increasing the burden of losses on the banks holding REO properties. ►Real median income for prime homebuying age cohorts in 2010 was at the same level as in the late 1970s. ►Homeownership rates for prime homebuying age cohorts are down almost 10 percent in 2010 relative to 1980. ►Consumers continue to allocate a higher share of household expenditures to housing, which means they have less money left to spend on non-housing consumption.