Duplex Market Shows Signs Of A Cure

There’s reason for hope in the duplex market.

According to CoreLogic, the number of properties lost to foreclosure nationally fell 31 percent from September one year ago. There were 83,000 homeowners who lost their properties to foreclosure in September 2011. This year, that number was 57,000.

To put it i context, between 2000 and 2006, the average number of properties lost to foreclosure nationally every month averaged 21,000.

So what’s the difference?

According to the company’s Chief Economist Mark Fleming, short sales, which are up 27 percent from one year ago.

Foreclosure inventory is also on the wane, with 1.4 million homes somewhere in the process. This amounts to 3.3 percent of all homes with a mortgage, or 1.4 million homes.

Last year, this number was 1.5 million homes, or 3.5 percent of all properties with a mortgage.

Objectively speaking, while those totals don’t add up to a cure, they are nonetheless, a step on the road to recovery.