Foreclosure Houses on Sale Account for Half in Gulf Shores
Foreclosure houses on sale and distressed properties for sale currently account for more than 50 percent of all residential units for sale in the Alabama Gulf Coast counties of Baldwin and Mobile, according to members of the Baldwin County Association of Realtors.
According to Chuck Norwood, a Gulf Shores-based real estate professional, today’s housing market in the Gulf Coast is a great time for buyers because of the affordable prices. He added that he is expecting a sharp increase in home sales next year because of lower-priced foreclosures, in contrast to last year when there was almost no sales activity.
In October, a total of 1,675 condo units in Baldwin County were listed for sale, 45 units of which are located in Gulf Shores. More than 3,000 residential units were available for sale in the county during the month of October.
Jonathan Keith of Mobile-based real estate firm Keller Williams said that foreclosure postings continue to rise in Baldwin and in Mobile. He added that lower-priced foreclosures have been attracting buyers, but they have been pulling down the prices of non-distressed homes and have been putting price pressures on homeowners who need to sell their homes. Keith said that sellers of non-foreclosed homes cannot compete with bank-owned foreclosure houses on sale.
Based on a report released recently by a property research firm, Alabama posted 2,447 foreclosure filings in October, representing one residential unit out of every 873 units in the state. This rate of foreclosure put Alabama 31st in a ranking of all the states.
Although the foreclosure situation in Alabama was better than most other states in October, the pace of foreclosure in October marked a staggering increase of nearly 193 percent compared to postings in October last year. Compared to the previous month, the pace of increase was slow, climbing up by only 1.45 percent.
In the third quarter, foreclosure postings in Alabama increased by a substantial 174 percent to 5,951 postings, representing a foreclosure rate of one house out of every 359 units. Although foreclosure activity slowed down by more than seven percent from the previous quarter, the level of foreclosure is relatively high in the state, which has not experienced the kind of foreclosure intensity experienced by other states at the start of the housing crisis.
During the third quarter, nearly 4,000 households received notices of trustee sales and more than 2,100 housing units were taken back by banks and posted as foreclosure houses on sale.
