Bank owned inventory is continuing to see a downward spiral caused by less foreclosed homes coming on the market monthly. This pattern still seems to be a result of the bad foreclosure process that the banks were caught using months ago.

New bank owned inventory is still coming on the market very slowly. Suffolk and Queens counties have slowed down to the point of hitting 18 month lows. Even though the slow down of new bank owned properties coming onto the market would normally be a good sign,  in this case it is not caused by the lack of properties to foreclose on. But due to the courts not foreclosing on the properties and the fast pace they have been on previous months.

The total inventory of bank owned properties on the market continued to slide downward in November. Bringing the totals to 18 month lows in Nassau & Suffolk counties.

Lis pendens filings have been on the decline since the peak which was reached back in the 3rd quarter of 2009. Even though there was a sight increase over the past year, lis pendens filings are down 47% since the peak in ‘09. Foreclosure sales also have declined drastically since the peak that occurred in 2010. I suspect to see foreclosure sales increase; however, I do not believe they will ever reach the volume that was achieved in past years.

Good to see that Long Island Lis Pendens did not increase over the past quarter. Compared to the third quarter of 2010 lis pendens filings are way down in both Nassau & Suffolk county. If the 4th quarter trends continue as they have in past years we should see both counties filings reduce below 1000 in the 4th quarter of 2011.

Long Island bank owned inventory is still coming on the market at a very slow pace.

Except for Suffolk county bank owned inventory on Long Island is still on the decline. Suffolk county had a small increase after 5 months of steady declines, the upward swing may be a new trend but only time will tell.

With foreclosures taking longer to get through the courts system new bank owned inventory has been declining steadily for more than a year. At his pace it would take over 10 years to foreclose and sell all the currently delinquent properties.

After seeing this inventory decrease in Suffolk county or stay flat in Nassau and Queens County, two of the 3 counties have hit a new high in short sale inventory. With the courts foreclosing on homes at a snails pace and some of the banks still being very difficult in negotiating a short this inventory doesn’t look like it is going to decline any time soon. However, Wells Fargo has stepped up there effort in negotiating short sales as of late, I have been contacted twice by Wells to initiate a shore sale on two of our properties. Both homes had a pre-approved short price and we were able to close them in 60 days. One can only hope the other banks start actively pursuing short sales as Wells Fargo has been.

This chart shows the amount of new bank owned properties that have come on the market in each county in the month of March. As you can see even though Nassau had an increase in new inventory last month, the trend has been downward in all three counties.