As our inventory in Cape Coral has reduced from the last several years, it is interesting to note the composition of our current single family home listings in MLS. We are seeing the active listings move very strongly to traditional sellers versus bank owned or short sales. The chart below shows our current breakdown of listings.
Active Pending (%) Total
Normal 1231 448 (27%) 1679
REO 67 131 (66%) 198
Short Sale 126 622 (83%) 748
This information clearly shows buyers continued push to buy properties they view as “distressed”. Note that of the 198 REO (bank owned) listings 66% are under contract. These homes typically sell very quickly often with multiple offers. Buyers love REO's but we are continually seeing a decline in bank listings. Another striking bit of data is short sales; it was not long ago that buyers shied away from short sales due to the time and difficulty in closing. As the data shows above, buyers are now focusing strongly on short sales as evidenced by 83% of short sale listings being under contract. A couple of factors which, we believe, drive that number is a seller’s greater willingness to get under contract quickly as the ultimate price is eventually agreed to by the bank and bank's increasing willingness to take a short sale instead of foreclosing. The other of course is that due to the approval process a short sales stays pending for 4 to 5 times as long as a normal or REO sale.
This is clearly showing a trend towards a more “normal” buyer and seller market.
Steve Koffman
Boker/Associate
Century 21 Sunbelt Realty,Inc
239-443-5191 Steve@Koffman.com