The numbers are in for October, and it looks like the residential real estate market in Maryland is still in transition. The market analysts at RealtyTrac Inc. put Maryland in third place in the nation for short sales but noted that the number of foreclosure sales was relatively low.
According to RealtyTrac, 8.2 percent of all residential transactions in the state during October were short sales. We ranked third, but we ranked well behind first-place Nevada (14.2 percent) and second-place Florida (13.6 percent). For the U.S. as a whole, 5.3 percent of home sales were short sales — a significant reduction from October 2012’s 11.2 percent.
Maryland also reported the third-highest foreclosure rate in October. One in 516 homes were in some stage of foreclosure, a rate that compares well with the leaders — Florida at 1 in 332 homes and Nevada at 1 in 407 homes — but that lags the national average of 1 in 978. New foreclosure filings were down slightly from September but just about doubled over the past 12 months.
CoreLogic, another real estate market analysis company, reported that, nationwide, the number of seriously delinquent home mortgages in October was the lowest since November 2008. CoreLogic also reported that the number of completed foreclosures declined in every state in October.
Maryland was among the top 10 states for completed foreclosures between October 2012 and October 2013. CoreLogic noted, too, that the five top states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationwide. We did rank third among judicial states for mortgages in serious delinquency.
We realize that numbers don’t mean much if you are one of the borrowers who have fallen behind on payments. What the numbers tell us is that there are ways to protect your investment, even to keep you in your home. The market is changing for the better, even if it’s just at a snail’s pace.
Sources:
Baltimore Business Journal, “Short sales in October made up 8.2 percent of Maryland home sales,” Kevin Litten, Nov. 26, 2013
RealtyTrac Inc., Maryland Real Estate Trends & Market Info – October 2013, accessed Dec. 11, 2013
CoreLogic, “National Foreclosure Report,” October 2013