Home and land sales improving over last year
Sales of homes and residential land in the Flathead appear to be recovering slightly after a dismal 2009, according to the recent market trends update report from Kelley Appraisal, in Kalispell. But some of that success could be attributed to dropping prices and more foreclosures.
The volume of home sales for January through September dropped by about a quarter in each of the years 2007 through 2009, dropping from 1,085 in 2007 to 614 last year.
But home sales increased by 28.3 percent for the same time period this year, reaching 788 home sales. About 27 percent of those homes, however, were bank-owned with a median price of $171,750, and about 6 percent were known short sales with a median price of $197,500.
The number of homes listed for sale has held relatively steady at around 2,000 to 2,100 over the past 21 months. A total of 2,175 homes were listed for sale in the Flathead in October this year, with a median price of $319,000. Of those, nearly 6 percent were banked-owned, with a median price of $187,450, and nearly 6 percent were offered-short-sales, with a median price of $195,000.
Residential land sales showed similar trends. While the sales volume for January through September decreased every year from 2006 through 2009, it increased by 64.8 percent this year.
The decline in the volume of land sales, however, were significantly larger than home sales for each of those years — by more than a third in 2007 and 2008 and by a dismal 57.1 percent last year. The increase in volume for January through September this year was accompanied by a precipitous drop in median price from $100,000 last year to $56,500 this year.
The Kelley report also included foreclosure data from the Flathead County courthouse. Notices of trustee’s sale, which must be recorded 120 days prior to an actual trustee’s sale, have increased every year from 2005 through 2010 for January through September.
The number of notices of trustee’s sale climbed slowly at first, from 112 in 2005 to 317 in 2008, before more than doubling to 719 last year. The number for January through September then increased by 165 to 884 this year.
The number of actual trustee’s sales for January through September has nearly doubled every year from 2008 through 2010. There were 87 trustee’s sales for that time period in 2008, 186 in 2009 and 319 this year.
Data from foreclosure.com shows the number of foreclosures in the U.S. holding steady at about 8 to 9 units per 1,000 from October 2009 through September 2010. The number for Montana, while significantly lower than the nationwide average, more than doubled from 1.76 units per 1,000 in October 2009 to 3.77 in September 2010.
The number of foreclosures in the Flathead, according to foreclosure.com, has increased from 4.26 units per 1,000 in October 2009 to 6.73 in September 2010. Kelley, however, noted that the Flathead data from foreclosure.com did not match data taken directly from the courthouse in Kalispell. The number of foreclosures in the Flathead is still increasing, Kelley reported.
Four national banks recently announced they will halt foreclosures while they review paperwork — Bank of America, PNC Financial Services, Ally Financial’s GMAC Mortgage unit and JP Morgan Chase. The action, however, was not in response to the number of foreclosures across the U.S. and their impact on economic recovery.
Instead, the large financial institutions are facing serious allegations of mortgage fraud that includes forged documents, faked Social Security numbers, nonexisting titles, “robo-signers” and mortgages that have been cut into pieces and repackaged beyond recognition.
The banks expect they will have to review hundreds of thousands of mortgages. They will also likely face class-action lawsuits by the public and by state attorneys general. Some housing experts expect the scandal will prolong the housing depression for a few more years.