Collier Swecker video blogs an answer to the frequently asked question about whether appraisers in today’s real estate market are using foreclosures and short sale homes as comparables when arriving at the fair market value of non distressed homes. In the good ole days of the mid 2000’s there were not as many distressed properties and there were plenty of normal resale homes for appraisers to use in your neighborhood as comparables to justify your homes value. To illustrate why appraisers have to consider distressed properties, consider that the ratio of actual homes listed that were in some form distress (short sale, reo, or foreclosure) in January 2012 was around 18% of all homes listed for sale in the Birmingham MLS, while the number of distressed homes that actually sold in January 2012 was much higher at around 43% of all homes sold. During those good ole days that percentage of distressed homes that sold monthly usually ran well below 10% of all sales. This rise in the ratio of distressed homes to non-distressed sold properties has forced appraisers to arrive at values that unfortunately accurately reflect what is going on in the market. They simply cannot ignore these distressed properties when they account for nearly half of all sales. If you have any comments or questions, email Collier at Collier@MegaAgents.com or visit my website at www.CollierSwecker.com.
Collier Swecker is a licensed real estate broker, attorney, blogger, speaker and entrepreneur. He is the founding partner of the Mega Agent Real Estate Team at RE/MAX Advantage which ranks as one of the top selling real estate teams in Alabama.