Comments from March 2010 Campbell’s Survey

Campbell’s Survey, the national monthly survey of real estate professional, had some interesting comments from around the country on the state of the real estate market.

First a little national bad news.  The inventory of distressed properties is likely growing.  There was a real significant push late last year to encourage loan modifications which seemed to slow the number of foreclosures, but this period has passed.  The banks are becoming quicker to process their distressed properties portfolio.  It is believed that the push is so that they can get more properties on the market prior to the end of the home buyer tax credit.

“Short sales now account for the No. 1 category of distressed property,” commented Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “Losses on short sales are typically lower than for REO, and both lenders and the government are  pushing programs to facilitate short sales. But as more and more people default or simply want to walk away from their properties, mortgage servicers are having trouble expeditiously processing these complicated transactions.”

The good news is that most real estate professionals around the country are saying that there is a dramatic increase in activity.  More people are out buying and they anticipate the trend will continue until the end of the home buyer tax credit deadline.

Agents indicated increased traffic as the end of the tax credit approaches. “There has been a pronounced pickup in homebuyer traffic at the very end of February which will probably result in contracts before the end of April,” commented an agent located in Colorado. An agent located in North Carolina stated, “We have demand, [but] not like October and November. We are seeing more traffic as the deadline draws closer.” “Some banks with short sales are actually trying to speed up the process and if this becomes a trend we may see the February traffic result in closed sales prior to the tax credit deadline.” opined an agent in California.