With April in the rear view mirror, let’s have a look at our monthly stats preview. Most of the charts below are based on broad county-wide data that is available through a simple search of King County Records. If you have additional stats you’d like to see in the preview, drop a line in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.
Here’s your preview of April’s foreclosure and home sale stats:
First up, total home sales as measured by the number of “Warranty Deeds” filed with the county:
Warranty Deeds bumped up 6% from March, a slightly smaller gain than we saw this time last year when sales were up 11% MOM. However, sales were still up over 50% from last year. This level of elevated closings will probably continue for about the next two months. Based on the level of Warranty Deed I’d guess SFH closings may get up to 1,700 for April.
Here’s a long-range view of Warranty Deeds, to give you a little more context:
Next, here’s Notices of Trustee Sale, which are an indication of the number of homes currently in the foreclosure process:
Down just slightly from last month, although the rate of foreclosures per business day was basically constant. Up big year-over-year again, shooting up 38% from 2009.
Here’s another measure of foreclosures, looking at Trustee Deeds, which is the type of document filed with the county when the bank actually repossesses a house through the trustee auction process. Note that there are other ways for the bank to repossess a house that result in different documents being filed, such as when a borrower “turns in the keys” and files a “Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure.”
Actual completed foreclosures were up again as well, posting a 65% gain over 2009, and holding fairly steady for 2010.
Lastly, here’s an approximate guess at where the month-end inventory was, based on our sidebar inventory tracker (powered by Estately):
Still creeping up to last year’s level. I wouldn’t be surprised if we match 2009 by June.
Stay tuned later this month a for more detailed look at each of these metrics as the “official” data is released from various sources.