Tucson Short Sales and REO Average Sale Price

I thought we might start the week of with a quick look at the data in the Tucson MLS for July since we can now track Short Sale and REO closed transactions.

This morning at 10:30 am I pulled the closed transactions for July and broke them down into three categories.   All Transactions, Short Sales, REO sales.   The result are interesting.   Possible not what you would have guessed.

How much to Sit by the Pool ?

All Transactions

519 Close Transactions
$211,865 Average Sale Price
$167,000 Median Sale Price

Short Sales

21 Closed Transactions
$220,636 Average Sale Price
$188,000 Median Sale Price

REO Sales

38 Closed Transactions
$164,847 Average Sale Price
$123,300 Median Sale Price

Anybody surprised that Short Sales have a higher Average Sale Price and Median Sale Price than any other category?

Have you heard this one: “Banks make more money on a short sale than on an REO.” ?   I have and the data would certainly seem to support this.

Then why is it that a short sale takes so long to complete?   Why is it that it takes up to 45 days to get the offer/offers entered into “The system”   and then another 30 to 45 days for the offer to be “considered”?   During which time many offers are withdrawn as the potential buyers get frustrated and move on to a home that is ready to close, to a home where the seller is ready to sell and take their money.

We have seen many sellers who over priced their homes and by the time they closed they took a much lower sale price than they ever said they would accept.   But they rode the market down, chipping away at the listing price while the market itself was chipping away at all closed sale prices.

Now we have banks doing the same thing.   Is it in the banks interest to put more effort into dealing with Short Sale offers quickly?   Absolutely!   The proof is in the numbers.   You would think if any corporation would know about “numbers” it would be a BANK.   But apparently not.