Bank Foreclosures
By James Wedgeworth on October 1st, 2010I recently saw a study by RealtyTrac which looked at the number of foreclosures in the country; it stated that during the 2nd quarter of 2010 that 15% of all sales in our country were foreclosures. What really amazed me were the percentages by state; 43% of California’s sales were foreclosures, 32% of Michigan’s sales were foreclosures, 27% of Georgia’s sales were foreclosures, 24% of Illionois’ sales were foreclosures and 20% of Ohio’s sales were foreclosures.
I was quite surprised to see that Georgia had such a high percentage of foreclosures because I consider them to have a fairly stable economy. In Fulton County there are 15,000 foreclosures and 11,000 normal properties on the real estate market, in Cobb County there are 7,200 foreclosures and 6,100 normal properties on the market and in Gwinett County there are 10,000 foreclosures and 6,000 regular properties. If you look outside the Atlanta area the percentages become more reasonable.
I don’t know the numbers for South Carolina, but Iowa had the lowest percentage with 4.43% of sales that were bank foreclosures.
Unfortunately, these bank foreclosures will continue to have a negative effect on the real estate market – foreclosures tend to put pressure on prices.
We have to work through these foreclosures to get the market turned around.
In the meantime, if you are looking for a great deal on Hilton Head Island there are some excellent opportunities available in foreclosure, short sale and normal properties. Click here to see a list of foreclosure and short sale properties on Hilton Head Island.