This is my guess, but 4th quarter I think we will see batches REO portfolios hit the open market. Especially in your area and mine :)

The Banks are holding the properties firming up the prices and are working out the deals with shortsales. Recently they have been tighening on the short sales also not surprising as they have a backlog of files to complete. Foreclosure filings according to RealtyTrac is 1.5 million homes for the first six months of this year. Clearly the recession and job loss is more steep and deep than the Obama administration is letting on.

My thoughts are that the lenders will bulk sale these properties at steep discounts to the same hedge funds and sometimes to the same investor that owns the MBS and other investors. Clearly everyone wants a stabilized real estate market even buyers as it is painful to buy a property and see it drop in value in six months. Inventory control will hopefully keep prices firm and with slight gain until this process is completed. If foreclosures hit the market in large volumes investors will snap them up for rental as a buy rent for income and hold for appreciation strategy but if they cannot absorb the numbers look out for a rolling snowball of crashing prices. I still believe that government, banks and investors will keep prices stabile or at least try. I ONLY HOPE

Most likely it is a result of the moratorium on foreclosures that was recently lifted. My intuition tells me there will be another wave of foreclosures hitting the market in the late 3rd/early 4th quarter of this year

Craig is correct. There is what is called a "shadow inventory" Those are assets that the banks already own but for different reasons have not released for sale yet. One has to do with their own balance scheets and stock price. Another may be a moratorium like we had ovr the Christmas holidays. BoA for example has shadow inventory in Califonia that consists of 72,000 forclosed properties. We clearly haven't seen the bottom yet.

We have a bit of a rush on listings for mainly one reason I suspect. The 8K first time buyer incentive is slated to expire come December 2009. If you are in the market as a first time buyer you would not want to forego that with prices at 1989 levels in many areas and interest very low in historical terms.

Banks control the market, inventory and pricing. Only in severe circumstances are the lenders foreclosing. Short-Sales will be the majority of the inventory, and generate more capital for the bank than a foreclosure over the long run.

Banks also control the flow of inventory that comes on the market as well. If a lender has a large amount of foreclosures in a particular city, they will not dump them all at the same time, but slowly over time.

If you research the market like I do, you would see that banks are holding a lot of inventory, but not assigning them to Realtors to sell.

Banks have an interest in holding values and even forcing increases in some areas. We are seeing many properties get multiple offers and selling over list price.

The best deals are going to cash buyers, able to close quickly with no conditions. Remember, if you have to get financing, which is difficult with foreclosures that do not have appliances or flooring, your choices are slim.

If you have any additional questions, please contact me at your convenience.

Craig Fialkowski GRI, CDPE
EXiT Realty Neighbors
2101 Vista Parkway Suite 225
West Palm Beach FL 33411
561-827-1790
NewFLproperties@gmail.com http://www.NewFLproperties.com