Advisors Mortgage Group > Market Updates > Inventory and Foreclosures…Let’s Go Beyond the Headline

Existing inventory of homes is up 22% from its lowest level in February 2022. Now, many in the media are going on and on about a major rise in inventory. They are also saying that this rise could lead to a housing crash. A deeper dive will show that this uptick in inventory is normal and happens every spring and summer. The big reason for this is that families would prefer their children to enter a new school at the beginning of the school year. This would make friendships and adjustments easier for their children. To accomplish this, parents would have to list their homes for sale during the spring and summer months.

Existing Home Sales tells us that the available housing inventory is 1.26 million homes for sale. This is less than half of what was available pre-Covid. However, what is not reported is that 641,000 homes are under contract. That means that actual available homes for sale are 619,000 homes which are way lower than what was reported and only 49% of the 1.26 million homes.

As for foreclosures, ATTOM Data came out reporting that there are 164,581 homes in foreclosure for the first half of 2022. This number is a 150% increase when compared to 2021 and that’s what the media loved reporting on, but let’s look past the headline. In 2021 there was a foreclosure moratorium. Meaning, that many foreclosures were put on hold causing many of them to get pushed into 2022’s numbers. So, the numbers for 2022 are actually many of 2021’s foreclosures added into 2022’s foreclosures. Even with that, 2022’s 164,581 foreclosures are still at a lower level than they were in the first half of 2020 which was 165,530 foreclosures. The way we see it, foreclosures are at a normal level and are not the doom and gloom scenario that the media likes to report on.

As usual, the media is not reporting on housing accurately. By the media saying there is a major increase in housing inventory, an increase in foreclosures, and calling for a housing crash, they are not providing a clear-cut overview of the market. The seasonal increase in housing inventory is normal and you can see that foreclosures are normalizing. You can always get the true picture by looking deeper into the data and getting beyond the headline.

Sources:

http://bit.ly/2MJU6mf

https://bit.ly/3BJQ9rK

By: Jon Iacono