Here is a short quiz for you…(HREU Students, this should be easy for you…we have been preparing you for this market)

1) How many homes in the U.S. are vacant?

2) How many homes received a default or auction notice or were repossessed by banks last in September?

3) In the second quarter of 2009 what was the total value of all the homes that the banks were holding (to be sold via REO)?

If you are new to HREU…here is a hint to pass this quiz.

Take whatever numbers you think are correct and double if not triple them.

Answers:1)  Nearly 19,000,000. To put that into perspective..there are currently around 4,000,000 home actively listed for sale now. 2) Nearly 1,000,000. Thats one million NEW REOs coming for sale soon in a town near you. 3) 34 BILLION! Thats the total estimated value of all the homes the banks took back via foreclosure in second quarter alone.

Its very important that you are clear what is really happening. You need to be focused on what opportunities you have today…and where the opportunities are in 2010. Clearly, the agents who have become Short Sale Specialists and REO Listing Agents will be the agents with a majority of the business.

Now, given what you now know about the massive number of REOs that must be listed and sold….over the next few months…and years….why wouldn’t you want to become a HREU Certified REO Specialist? Don’t make the mistake in believing that the banks have already selected their REO listing agents. Nothing could be further from the truth. Watch the FREE Agent REO Secrets video and grab your free how-to list REO’s book.

Here is an article from Bloomberg:

About 18.8 million homes stood empty in the U.S. during the third quarter as banks seized properties from delinquent borrowers and new home sales fell in September.

The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, rose from 18.4 million a year earlier and 18.7 million in the second quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The record high was in the first quarter, when 18.95 million homes were vacant. The homeownership rate, meaning households that own their own residence, stood at 67.6 percent.

The worst U.S. housing crash since the Great Depression has led to a record number of foreclosures and shaved almost a third off property values. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index of 20 cities in August was 29 percent below its 2006 high, after rising for four consecutive months.

“We are bumping along the bottom of the housing market,” said James Lockhart, vice chairman of WL Ross & Co. and the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. “There is the potential for another swing down.”

Sales of new U.S. homes fell 3.6 percent in September to an annual pace of 402,000, the Commerce Department said yesterday. That was lower than the 440,000 median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

OK, lets take a little breath and think about what you are reading.

Obviously, what is going to happen in 2010 will NOT be any sort of price recovery…if anything, there will be additional home value losses. We are predicting that most markets could see another 10-15% loss in value. For homes in the $200,000 and lower ranges the losses will be less…if any at all. The biggest hit will come from the ‘luxury’ home value segment.

So, what can you do now to help folks avoid foreclosure? Simple, learn how to do Short Sales. Forget EVERYTHING you think you know about short sales. The short sale process has changed significantly over the last 60 days and 2010 will be the ‘Year of the Short Sale’. Bottom line, if you plan on being in real estate…for the next few years….you simply must be doing short sales. Do you really have a choice? Do this…watch the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets video and download the FREE Agent Short Sale Secrets book.

Vacancy Rate

The percentage of all U.S. homes empty and for sale, known as the vacancy rate, rose to 2.6 percent from 2.5 percent in the second quarter. It hit an all-time high of 2.9 percent in the first and fourth quarters of 2008, the Census Bureau said.

There were 130.3 million homes in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to the report. In addition to the 2 million empty properties for sale, the report counted 4.6 million vacant homes for rent and 4.6 million seasonal properties that are only used for part of the year.

Foreclosures are included in a part of the Census Bureau that also includes vacation homes intended for year-round use and homes that are unoccupied because they are under renovation or tied up in legal proceedings. There were 7.7 million such properties empty in the first quarter, up from 7.5 million a year earlier, the report said.

Foreclosures could also be counted as vacant homes for sale or rent, or as owner-occupied properties if lenders have not yet evicted previous owners, the federal agency said.

U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to a record in the third quarter as lenders seized more properties from delinquent borrowers, according to RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine, California. A total of 937,840 homes received a default or auction notice or were repossessed by banks, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, the data company said.

U.S. banks in the second quarter held $34 billion of properties acquired through foreclosure, including repossessed homes and condominium projects gone bust, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Washington. That’s almost double the $18.9 billion of real estate a year earlier.

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