Foreclosed Homes for Sale Fell in April

About 29 major cities in the United States still showed a decline in the number of foreclosed homes for sale in April of this year.

According to data released by real estate brokerage company ZipRealty Inc., last month’s supply of repossessed homes for sale went down by 3.6 percent compared with March figures. ZipRealty monitors all types of properties for sale on multiple-listing services, including condominiums, single-family houses and town homes.

Some analysts noted that the continuous drop in the real estate foreclosure properties for sale was an indication that foreclosure has hit bottom. However, others are still uncertain whether foreclosed homes will continue its declining trend or pick up again.

To boost the expectations of some analyst that the number of foreclosure homes for sale will hit bottom, research firm Zelman and Associates explained that property inventories usually increase in April due to the spring house-shopping season in the country. The average rise in April from the previous month has always been 4.8 percent since 1982.

The April inventory of foreclosed home for sale in all 29 metropolitan areas in the country dropped to 21 percent compared to the same month last year.

Meanwhile, data from the National Association of Realtors showed that March inventory of foreclosure homes for sale was estimated at 3.7 million nationwide, a drop of 10 percent from the same period last year. And the figures do not include all bank owned properties foreclosures that are scheduled for sale.

Foreclosed homes owned by government-sponsored enterprises, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Corp. accounted for about 35 percent to 50 percent of the foreclosure properties for sale at any given time.

Housing economist Tom Lawler said that the drop in the inventory of repossessed homes for sale indicated that home prices is about to hit the market bottom. He also noted the drop in the housing construction. However, as with some analysts, he is also uncertain how many foreclosure homes will be put on the market for sale in the coming months.

According to Barclays Capital, loan investors and banks are estimated to own 765,500 foreclosed properties as of April, an increase from 629,100 the previous year. Barclays predicted that the inventory of foreclose homes for sale will rise at about 1.3 million halfway through 2010.

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