Bank owned homes in Florida are popular to owner-buyers and investors largely because of their prices. Buyers who couldn’t afford to buy a home during the boom years can now choose from a lot of lower-priced houses.
Investors who have lots of cash and strong relations with financiers have figured out that their money can earn more if they buy REO homes now. They believe that the housing market cannot just go on declining. At some point in the near future, homes will become as valuable as before, and they’ll profit from the price increase. People need to live somewhere, don’t they?
According to online real estate firm RealtyTrac, buyers of REO homes in Florida in the first quarter of this year saved an average of 35.57 percent from the non-foreclosure prices. This means that the prices paid by buyers were 35.57 percent lower than the average prices of non-foreclosed homes.
The average rate of savings in Florida in the first quarter was just right, compared to those of other states. Florida’s average REO discount rate was about the same as the national average discount, which was 35.08 percent.
The states with the six highest REO discount rates were New York, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Maryland and New Jersey. Surprisingly, New York posted an average REO discount rate of 53.46 percent while posting a much lower discount rate for pre-foreclosures, which was only 19.64 percent. Illinois posted an average REO discount of 47.61 percent.
Overall, however, the states with the highest foreclosure discount rates were Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee, with Ohio posting an average discount of 41 percent.
In Florida, the average discount rate for foreclosures, which include REOs and pre-foreclosures, was 27.28 percent. The relatively lower rate means that Florida homes are now recapturing the value level that they once had. The average price for foreclosed homes in Florida was $116,583 while the national average was $168,321.
A total of 25,052 foreclosure homes in Florida were sold in the first quarter, accounting for 32.5 percent of all home sales in the state during the quarter.
The states which sold the most foreclosure homes compared to their total home sales are the following:
| Nevada | 53.32 percent |
| California | 45.23 percent |
| Arizona | 45.19 percent |
| Idaho | 32.88 percent |
| Florida | 32.49 percent |
| Michigan | 31.94 percent |
| Oregon | 31.71 percent |
| Virginia | 30.20 percent |
| Colorado | 29.96 percent |
| Illinois | 29.38 percent |
| Georgia | 27.23 percent |
| Ohio | 24.59 percent |
On the whole, buying a bank owned home in Florida now, either for own use or investment, makes financial sense because of the significant discounts.
Contact Tampa4U for more information about bank owned homes in Tampa.