IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS

January 2010

Lender Owned Properties (REO)

Of the single family detached resale home sales reported through ARMLS for the month of December 2009, 41.9% of the listings were noted as "Lender Owned," an almost 3% increase from last month.

The graph below shows the percentage of REO sales over the past two years. In September 2007, that number was less than 10% of total sales, and you can see the steady climb of REO sales from that point. January 2009 saw the biggest jump in the REO sales percentage as it rose from 56% in December 2008 to 68% in January 2009. The percentage of REO’s has fallen by over 25% during 2009. The proportion of REO sales varies substantially by city, and we'll take a closer look at that in a later article.

*A factor in the increase in the percentage of sales being reported as Lender Owned is a change in the listing procedure which requires the listing agent to check the special listing conditions block (no, lender owned, short sale, etc). Prior to a couple months ago this was an optional field. If a listed property is not specifically categorized as a Lender Owned property, we do not classify it as a Lender Owned sale.

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