The number of foreclosed homes sold in Fairfield County decreased nearly 13 percent in 2012, according to a new report.
Preliminary data show about 611 foreclosed homes were sold in 2012, compared with 700 in 2011 and 779 in 2010, according to the Greater Fairfield County Consolidated Multiple Listing Service (CMLS). The number of unsold inventory on the market has also been cut in half between the end of 2010 and 2012.
“That”™s a very positive indicator,” said Cheryl Scott-Daniels, chairwoman of the Greater Fairfield County CMLS board of directors. “If you have fewer properties being foreclosed, then homeowners are able to stay in their houses. Foreclosures bring down the market, cause families to be uprooted, and houses deteriorate when they”™re not maintained and occupied.”
Though many factors have contributed to the decline in foreclosures, partial relief can also be attributed to Connecticut”™s share of the $17 billion national mortgage settlement among several government entities and at least five of the largest mortgage servicers to ease the housing crisis and stop foreclosure abuses.
As of the most recent report, nearly 3,000 Connecticut borrowers have received about $185 million in debt relief between March and September 2012 through the settlement. The average benefit was $65,000, according to the national mortgage settlement monitor.
Scott-Daniels said looking only at the number of foreclosed homes isn”™t the best way to gauge the real estate market, but it”™s another indicator that the market is at a turning point. With fewer foreclosed listings and sales artificially bringing down the value of homes, there will be a stronger supply and demand model determining the prices, said Scott-Daniels, who is also president of the Mid-Fairfield County Association of Realtors.
Terence Beaty, director of New Homes and Land at Prudential Connecticut Reatly, said the statewide market improved in 2012, according to preliminary data.
Beaty said data suggest the number of Connecticut homes sold in 2012 is about 11 percent lower than the number of homes sold in 2011, but he said the average sale price is up about 11 percent in 2012 and is the highest it has been since 2008.
Beaty estimated that in 2012, Connecticut homes sold for a median price of $425,000, which would be a 6.3 percent increase compared to 2011 and would represent the highest median sale price since 2005.
He said a full real estate recovery would follow the national economic recovery. Only about a third of all the jobs lost in Connecticut from the recession have been recovered and many of the recovered jobs are lower paying, he said. The real estate market has been improving, but until homeowners can afford new construction to replace outdated homes ”” often made worse by foreclosures ”” the recovery will continue to lag, he said.
“Homes are falling into disarray and becoming obsolete every day,” Beaty said. “We need to replace our older housing. And as long as we can do it creatively, we need to do that. We”™ve got to think differently and come up with new ideas.”
Next week, Beaty, along with other new homes real estate leaders, will meet with legislators in Berlin, Conn. to discuss possible agendas to boost new home construction.
