There's a lot of talk about the "shadow foreclosure inventory" across the country - homes that are in the pipeline for a foreclosure or have been foreclosed by the bank, but not released or listed on the real estate market and are not part of the existing inventory.

On December 17, 2009, Bloomberg reported:

 

The number of homes that may be in the pipeline for a sale because of foreclosure and delinquency climbed about 55 percent to 1.7 million at the end of September, according to estimates by First American CoreLogic.

We are constantly getting calls from home buyers asking about available foreclosures in Pasadena California. Unfortunately, the volume has been pretty darn low. Almost nothing to choose from. If a nice REO home comes up on the market, it is sold (usually with multiple offers) immediately.

Let's take a look at the actual REO (foreclosure) inventory in Pasadena:

Single Family Homes available for sale - 9

Condos available for sale - 4

Townhomes available for sale - 3

 

As you can see the foreclosure count above is pretty miserable compared to the overall inventory of Pasadena homes available for sale:

Single Family Homes available for sale - 203

Condos available for sale - 152

Townhomes available for sale - 50

 

But, are we sitting on a ton of "shadow" foreclosure inventory? When will these REOs be released? How will that inventory affect the current Pasadena home prices?

Let's look at some hard data as of January 10, 2010

Bank Owned Homes in Pasadena: 88 total

Since we know that only 16 REO homes are actually listed for sale, the other 72 are MIA. That's 82% of foreclosures that are sitting on lender books waiting to hit our real estate market. That's also approximately 16% of additional inventory to the existing listing inventory. Here's the break down:

Single Family - 53 homes

Condos and Townhomes - 35

Read More: See Pasadena Foreclosure List of Properties

Number of Pasadena home owners who received Notices of Default (NODs): 206

To receive a Notice of Default, otherwise known as NOD, a home owner has to be behind on their payments. They usually would have missed at least 3 payments and the Notice of Default is the beginning of a foreclosure process. Here's the break down:

Single Family - 143

Condos and Townhomes - 63

Number of Pasadena home owners with Auction Dates already scheduled: 298

Most of these homes will be auctioned off in January or early February unless the home owners are able to either get current on their mortgage, negotiate a short sale with the bank, or get the bank to postpone the auction date.

Single Family -232

Condos and Townhomes - 66

Read More: It's all about forgiveness! Understand the short sale process

It's interesting to note that only a few of these home owners are trying to negotiate a short sale with their lender. Only 9 condo/townhomes are listed for sale as short sale and 30 single family homes.

As you can see, we will definitely be seeing quite a few foreclosures on the Pasadena real estate horizon. When will they hit? I don't know. We've seen continuous efforts by the government to help home owners hold on to their homes including lender moratoriums delaying the foreclosure process. Unfortunately, that is not helping the majority of Pasadena property owners who are in trouble.

If you are a Pasadena home buyer, 2010 will be a year of opportunity.

If you are a home owner who is in trouble and is in jeopardy of losing your home, don't wait for the bank to foreclose. A short sale is a much better option. Give us a call for a free consultation and we'll try to help.

To see how your neighborhood is affected by foreclosure, take a look at our FREE foreclosure neighborhood data and analysis tool here.

Additional Reading: 2009 Real Estate Home Sales Recap and 2010 Pasadena Real Estate Forecast

See all Pasadena foreclosures by clicking on the Pasadena Foreclosure Homes for Sale

 

IRINA NETCHAEV & ASSOCIATES

Pasadena Real Estate Agents

Pasadena, CA 91105

(626)629-VIEW(8439)