Short Sale Soundoff: 2011 Short Sale Research Study

CoreLogic recently announced the release of its 2011 Short Sale Research Study, “CoreLogic Analysis on Short Sale Trends, Risks, and Opportunities.” The study was designed to take a rigorously scientific, data-driven look at current trends in short sales and to identify inherent risks and opportunities associated with these transactions.

“Suspicious” short-sale transactions are those where a lender may have incurred unnecessary losses due to the short sale transaction quickly followed by a resale transaction for a substantially higher price where that higher price is not supported by an underlying increase in property value. The focus of the study was to quantify the potential losses associated with these suspicious short-sale transactions.

“This study reveals that short sales that show another sale transaction closing on the same day account for 16 percent of all suspicious short sales in the industry. These same-day resales are on average $50,000 greater than the lender agreed upon short sale price,” said Tim Grace, senior vice president of Product Management and Analytics at CoreLogic. “The study also validates an industry perception related to Limited Liability Company buyers in short-sale transactions: while they comprise only two percent of all buyers, they comprise more than 25 percent of buyers in suspicious short-sale transactions.”

Key findings from the study include:

It is estimated that lenders, servicers, and investors may incur potential losses in excess of $375 million in 2011 due to suspicious short sale transactions. This is up more than 20 percent from $310 million in estimated losses for 2010.

Rates of suspicious transactions are on the rise. In the first half of 2010, approximately one in every 52 (1.9 percent) short sale transactions appears to be suspicious, wherein the lender may have incurred unnecessary loss.

Some of the states with the largest short sale volume (California, Arizona, Colorado, and Florida) are now the same states with the highest rates of suspicious short-sale transactions. This convergence results in maximum negative impact on the industry.

Source: CoreLogic