Not sure if you should buy! Foreclosures are up making it a great market to buy

The Triangle Business Journal reported today that North Carolina foreclosure filings make a tremendous jump in July. RealtyTrac, a California based real estate tracking company, reports that there were 4,303 foreclosure filings in North Carolina in the month of July. This is a 127 percent increase from July 2007 and up 24 percent from June 2008. These filings includes default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.

For every 936 North Carolina household, there was one foreclosure filing, which ranks North Carolina 25th in the nation. The highest foreclosure rate was Nevada, where one in every 106 households; California second with one in every 182 households, and Florida is third with one in every 186 households.

The states with the highest foreclosure totals included California (72,285), Florida (45,884) and Ohio (13,457).

Nationally, there are 272,171 foreclosures notices sent out in July which represents a 55 percent increase over last year and nearly an 8 percent increase from June, 2008.

RealtyTrac went on to say that approximately 17 percent of the national inventory of homes for sale were bank REOs (Real Estate Owned).

This is a major problem for home sellers across the Triangle and North Carolina, but a huge positive for home buyers. First of all, banks are more incline to negotiate on price to get the home off their books, even if it means taking a loss on the value of the home. Last year, I helped an investor purchase a foreclosed home in Raleigh for nearly $30,000 less than the market value at the time.

Secondly, the added competition from banked owned properties forces individual home sellers to negotiate on price or repairs in order to sell their homes. Homes in Raleigh are being reduced in price at an alarming rate in order to generate interest in the home and get it sold. Quite a few months ago, I helped a couple purchase a home that had already been reduced $30,000 dollars and we purchased it for $35,000 less than that listed price. The buyers actually purchased a home with approximately $65,000 in equity built-in.

As I mentioned, sellers are more willing to negotiate then ever before, so it is possible to get a seller to pay for you to get out of your current lease if you purchase their home. To get a seller to pay for your lease, you will most likely have to make a full price offer, but it is a small price to pay to get out of the lease and to begin to build equity in your new home.

There are many ways to get into a new home if you are currently renting and I would encourage you to contact me with any questions about purchasing a home in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill areas.