While RealtTrac recently reported that residential home foreclosures climbed again for the month of June 2009, all the news is not bad. The rate of foreclosures decreased dramatically. The Tampa area no longer leads the nation in foreclosures. In fact, we are now below the national average.
Statistics from the Greater Tampa Association of Realtor reveils more good news from June. A couple of items jump out at me. First, you have to go back to September 2006 to see similar sales velocity at 1714 units sold. But this is not a blip or aberration. Sales have increased every month this year, the average sales price has increased every month this year, and the months of available inventory have plummeted to 8.34 months from almost 19 months in January of this year. That is pretty amazing!
What does this mean to the commercial markets? There will be a positive, indirect, lagging effect that will ripple through the commercial sector. If we can return to any normalcy in the new housing market, there will be a spill over in aiding our flagging local economy. I am not sure this bump will be enough to offset some of the issues with renewing the 5 year balloons on commercial mortgages, though. The most problematic of these loans were underwritten in 2005-2007, which means 2010-2012 could be a real challenge for the commercial markets.
We are not out of the woods, yet. However, it is nice to finally talk about some positive things for a change.
