The number of HUD homes available for sale in Columbus has been shrinking since February. A year ago HUD picked 3 new asset managers to speed up the sale of its inventory. And that’s exactly what happened.
Even without incentives, such as the first-time home buyer tax credit or the $100 down program for FHA loans, HUD homes sell like crazy.
Why does HUD not increase the number of listings?
They have the capacity to sell at least twice as many homes than they are listing in Central Ohio. Many listing brokers have joined the program. There’s no shortage of real estate agents to sell HUD homes.
Are they running out of HUD homes?
Now that would be hard to believe. The number of foreclosures was still very high during the past 12 months. There should not be any shortage of foreclosed homes.
We constantly read reports of a humongous shadow inventory that could hit the market any day and push home prices down by more than 20%. There is no indication that this shadow inventory is held back by HUD, if you look at their listing stats.
Currently, there are only 704 HUD homes listed in the State of Ohio. That’s less than a year ago, when they switched management contractors.
The most expensive HUD home sits in Dublin on Pebble Creek Drive. It’s listed for $235,000.
And the least expensive home (not counting dollar homes which are only available to government agencies) is a 2-bedroom in Zanesville offered for a mere $3,000.
Here are the stats for Central Ohio.
HUD Listings per County
Franklin County: 80
Delaware County: 6
Licking County: 5
Fairfield County: 8
Pickaway County: 5
Madison County: 5
Union County: 2
TOTAL Number of Central Ohio HUD Listings: 111 (209 at mid-April 2011, 164 mid-May 2011)
