Think Short Sales Are Only in the Subprime Market? Think Again!

Attached is a link to a Florida Association of Realtors article pointing out the changes in the market place that are now affecting the half million dollar plus and even million dollar place home market.

For us, our experience is that, like the article said a large group of these short sale homes ARE located in the sub $200K and now even sub 150K range and WERE limited to the sub prime market but we had already been seeing plenty of Shorts 500K plus and even 1 million plus as far back as this time last year.  We believe that this (Sarasota Bradenton) market was a "leader" if you will, into the downturn - having had a market stall in September of 2005 and then at first a slow erosion of price which has turned in the last 14 months or so into a pretty rapid decline in price. And while the higher end SEEMED to react a little later - we saw that end of the market come down long before the folks nationally in the markets quoted have seen them.

Perhaps too, these took longer to go short as folks on the upper end of the market had more resources to exhaust and were willing to do so to try to avoid the stigma of either a short sale or a foreclosure. We have also seen banks be a lot more agressive in asking for some "owner contribution" on the higher end as they see this type of  customer as having a better income stream to tap into or they would ask them to liquidate 401K type assets (that usually can't be harmed in a Bankruptcy but the bank is assuming the customer wants to avoid that route as well) or even that the customer has a better income stream and can afford to take back a note after the lien is released.

But as the market continues to weaken AND folks have had their 401K's and their portfolios depleted they have less resources to tap on AND are less willing to exhaust what they have left to keep a mortgage that is far bigger than the current value of the home current.

Once again, this is not the answer for everyone but if you find yourself in this position and need to understand your options you should speak with someone who has done a number of successful short sales before you get too far behind on your payments.

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n1-111708.cfm

- Mike W.