These days, every time you read the news you’ll see another expert talking about the shadow inventory coming home to roost.  Depending on the guesser, there will be somewhere between 3 million and 8 million homes that get foreclosed in America over the next 1-10 years.  Can we narrow that down a bit?

The shadow inventory that is hardest to count are the borrowers who are not making their payments, but aren’t on the foreclosure rolls yet.  LPS came out with this chart (below), so let’s use their numbers and envision what would happen if banks/servicers change course, and ramp up the foreclosure machine:

The chart shows 17,800 defaults (today the NOD and NOT count is 14,435 on foreclosureradar), and 34,200 properties in San Diego County that are at least 90-days late, for a total of 52,000.  

How would it look in your area if EVERY ONE of these were foreclosed in next 12 months?

To estimate the total number of defaulters plus 90-day late borrowers for each area, let’s use the multiplier formula here: 17,800 x 2.92 = 52,000.

Let’s multiply 3x the current defaults in each area/zip code:

Area or Zip Code NODs/NOTs x 3 # of Homes 1 REO per # homes Foreclosed since 1/1/07
Spring Valley
783
9,368
12
1,777
West RB 92127
378
7,140
19
506
Chula Vista
3,051
59,529
20
6,675
Otay Mesa
825

17,197
21
1,807
Encanto
780
17,869
23
1,675
Escondido
1,605
44,964
28
3,934
El Cajon
1,068
35,173
33
2,652
Oceanside
1,698
59,498
35
3,962
RP 92129
348
15,109
43
487
Scripps Rch
222
10,521
47
288
Carmel Valley
237
11,304
48
291
Carlsbad
672
33,717
50
987
RSF
63
3,517
56
71
Cardiff
78
4,544
58
58
Encinitas
303
19,138
63
305
Solana Bch
81
6,072
75
102
La Jolla
246
19,529
79
257
PB/MB 92109
261
26,105
100
285
Del Mar
66
6,714
102
78

If servicers crack down and foreclose on every 90-day late property, we’ll see one flipper or REO listing on virtually every block in areas like Spring Valley. But with all the foreclosure activity over the last few years, would it bother buyers to see 1 out of 40 or 50 homes getting foreclosed? I don’t think so, and this is probably the worst-case scenario over the next year.  The current SD default list is split 65% SFRs, and 35% condos/others, so spread it around as you visualize what might happen in your area over the next 12-18 months. 

In areas like Carmel Valley, where we’re estimating 237 SFRs and condos on the NOD/NOT/90-day list, it would bring relief to buyers starved for well-priced inventory.  We know some defaulters will get their loan mod or be short-sold, but if not, and 15-20 foreclosures per month came on the market, it wouldn’t overwhelm the market – 71 homes sold there last month.  Hopefully, it might scare some of the elective sellers back to the sidelines, to be replaced by bank-owned inventory.

In Carlsbad, if you divide the current NOD/NOT/90-day list by 12, it would mean roughly 56 REO or flipper listings per month, and 124 sold there in August.

We’ve expected that we’d be in a heavy bank-inventory environment by now, yet the ‘delay-and-pray’ strategy has been employed instead. If 30% to 50% of the for-sale inventory was well-priced bank deals (flippers are retail-plus) it could boost sales.  If servicers insist on the extend-and-pretend strategy, sales are going to slow down, unless elective sellers get more realistic.

Servicers, please foreclose on every defaulter in the next 12 months – homebuyers would appreciate the well-priced inventory!

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