If any Santa Clarita real estate guru were to take a quick temperature of the local foreclosure inventory, and report their findings to you, odds are, they would be 228% off!
Why? The fact is that information in our Santa Clarita MLS system, which is where Realtors like myself list homes for sale, is only as good as the info we input, and which boxes we check off (or don’t), prior to submitting for our colleagues and consumers to view and digest.
Background: At this time, in order to get the EXACT number of foreclosure properties listed for sale on the market and in escrow, one would literally have to go through all 2,542 listings and review them, one at a time, since, as you will see from my stats, many of the listing agents don’t properly check off that the homes are “real estate owned” in an available and totally searchable field within our database - which is where I’d naturally goto in order to FIND all real estate owned property for sale in any given area(s).
With that in mind, you would normally be reported that the inventory (both active and those in escrow) of local Santa Clarita foreclosures tallys up to a slim 74 as of tonight – spread throughout all Santa Clarita areas! I’ve always known that number has been low, and isn’t REALLY what the figure should be. I knew a large portion of Realtors haven’t been fully indicating in key search fields, that their listings are indeed bank owned foreclosures. They do however just about every-time, list that key information in private remarks only we Realtors can view, and in various ways where we indicate an owners name of a particular property. But I can’t search for those fields of information! Thus the need to painstakingly review EVERY listing. I did learn a short cut, so don’t feel too sorry for me.
I thought I’d set out to find the real number of foreclosure MLS listings in Santa Clarita, and actually report it right.
The details & findings are below. This is the only place you’ll find them too.
Santa Clarita Foreclosure Inventory - December 2007
| SCV Area | REO's Active | REO's In Escrow | Total REO's | SCV MLS REPORTS | % Area Inventory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acton | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1.8% |
| Agua Dulce | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 8.1% |
| Canyon Country | 70 | 15 | 85 | 20 | 12.3% |
| Castaic | 16 | 5 | 21 | 10 | 9.0% |
| Newhall | 20 | 2 | 22 | 6 | 7.5% |
| Saugus | 25 | 8 | 33 | 16 | 7.5% |
| Stevenson Ranch | 10 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 10% |
| Valencia (all parts) | 46 | 17 | 63 | 18 | 10.7% |
I calculated, with a very low margin for error, that there are 243 Santa Clarita foreclosure homes either for sale or in escrow – that is the total of both groups. That’s 9.6% of the total Santa Clarita inventory of homes for sale in the MLS. The term foreclosure is used loosely sometimes. By foreclosures, I mean homes that have actually gone through and finished the foreclosure process, and are either lender owned, corporate owned, or investor owned (purchased from Trustee Sale). Not Short Sales. Breaking down the 243 figure, there are 192 foreclosure homes actively looking for buyers, and 51 currently in escrow/under contract.
If I did the typical search in the MLS like most information “gatherers,” I would’ve learned that there are only 74 total foreclosure listings in Santa Clarita, either active, or under contract. Break that down, and I would learn that there are just 54 actives, and 16 in escrow.
A 228% difference from the REAL numbers overall.
Perhaps there can be another update after the 1st quarter of 2008. Stay tuned – for good SCV real estate stats!
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{ 3 comments }
This was very helpful, Robert. I mentioned your analysis on my blog today. Do you have any sense of whether these percentages would play out approximately the same nationwide? That is, around 10%?
Thanks Lin. I’d be surprised if REO homes Nationwide, accounted for 10% of the National inventory. But then again, I don’t have statistics to review in order to analyze that. I’d like to guess that it’s at least a few % points lower on a National level. It’s probably very similar, and larger to some degree in other suburban portions in California, and larger states alike, that experienced a lot of speculative buying, and price appreciation in prior years. I couldn’t imagine trying to figure out the stat for larger areas than mine. My area only has about 2,500 homes on the market (for sale or under contract), areas near me, like the San Fernando Valley (has over 12,000 listings), could take days and days o analyze. I only had a few hours. It’d be nice if there was an easy way to search these stats, and know you’re receiving actual figures as they exist. Thanks for linking to my post. Take care!
Excellent work. Many REO’s are improperly listed on MLS listings in virtually every corner of the country. An ability to compile these lists and negotiate with the selling institutions could make a fine niche as a realtor. Contact me if you are interested.
Rollin Skinner
rskinner@logjamminvestments.com
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