Are foreclosures readily available, not in South Carolina
I get a number of inquiries from people who are interested in taking advantage of the current housing situation indicating that buying a foreclosure would be a good idea. And it might be, especially if condition doesn't matter to you because generally, the condition of the foreclosed property will be dismal at best. But just because the media is reporting on the growing number of foreclosures and the government is making a priority of helping those in foreclosure does not mean they are readily available in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market.
First, let's differentiate a foreclosure from a short sale. A foreclosure is owned by the lender and can be purchased. A short sale is owned by the homeowner (well, actually, the homeowner really doesn't own the home but their name is still on the title). The owner lists the property but the proceeds of the sale will not be enough to pay off the loan or loans, thus they are short money and even though the seller might accept an offer, it is up to the lender or lenders to accept less than what is owed. That is where the problem with purchasing the home is and it is especially difficult when 2 different lenders are involved.
I've written about short sales here and here and the difficulty, if not the near impossibility of actually buying one. Most likely, these properties will become foreclosures but for now, let's talk about the current market for foreclosed properties here in Charleston and around the country.
South Carolina is ranked 37th of the 50 states in foreclosure rates with 698 properties entering some stage of foreclosure in February with one foreclosure for every 2762 households. In the US, there were 223,651 homes at some stage of the foreclosure process with one foreclosure for every 557 homes.
Two states, California and Florida account for 38.4% of all the foreclosure activity in the US in February. When you add Texas, Michigan and Ohio, these 5 states account for over 50% of all foreclosures. Add Arizona, Illinois, Georgia, Colorado and Nevada and 10 states comprise an astounding 70+% of all the foreclosures in the country last month. On a percentage basis, Nevada had the highest percentage of all homes in the foreclosure process followed by California, Florida, Arizona and Colorado.
Foreclosure map courtesy of RealtyTrac. Click here for statistical data for February for all 50 states.
Clearly, there are problems but if you are looking for distressed property sales in the Charleston real estate market, there aren't as many as the media might have you believe. There certainly are some foreclosures available for you to buy and most likely there will be more. But for the time being in South Carolina, they are neither abundant or readily available.
Finally, even though the media headlines the foreclosure problems and the government is attempting to offer solutions, you should also understand that over 95% of all homes in the US are not in foreclosure.