As many of you know, I spend a lot of time and energy trying to educate everyone on the differences between short sale, foreclosures and traditional sales. In preparing for this week's article, I noticed some statistics that told a very interesting story. For those of you that hate numbers and statistics, I apologize. However I felt like the information was important enough to share.

Currently there are 267 homes in Dacula listed as ACTIVE in FMLS. Of those, 34 of them (13 percent) are short sales and 27 of them (10 percent) are foreclosures. Together these distressed properties represent only 23 percent of the current market. Hopefully this is a good sign for those tradition sales as we move into the height of the spring selling season.

With less foreclosures and short sales to compete against, this should give sellers a chance to get more for their listing. This may be a small window of opportunity so all sellers should think now about getting as aggressive as possible in order to get an offer.

While there is a sign of good news, here are the numbers that remind us of the challenges in the market. There are currently 182 contracts PENDING in Dacula. 59 of those (32 percent) are short sales while 25 (14 percent) are foreclosures. Add those together and 46 percent of the current contracts PENDING are distressed properties. This high ratio could be explained in the fact the time a short sale is PENDING typically runs anywhere from 3–6 months.  So, as a seller, you must realize that your house must compete with these distressed properties. Today’s buyers don’t care what you paid or what you owe. They go out and look at 10–15 properties and they make an offer based on taste and based on value.

The last way to analyze the numbers is to see what has closed so far in 2012. So far, 166 homes have CLOSED in Dacula. So far, 58 (35 percent) of the total closing have been foreclosures. Only 15 (9 percent) of the closed homes have been short sales. Together, distressed property closings represent 44 percent of all closings. The fact that short sales take time and that some don’t get approved are clearly represented here in that 32 percent are pending while 9 percent have closed. On the other side of the coin foreclosures show 14 percent pending 35 percent of the closing. 

In my mind, these numbers reflect what I see and feel with my clients every day. Foreclosures go under contract faster than traditional sales and they get closed faster than short sales. Short sales also go under contract faster than traditional sales but they take longer to close. 

It will be interesting to see if traditional sales can catch up to distressed properties this spring and summer. I will run these numbers again in August after the kids are back in school and we can judge by the numbers where the market is headed.

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