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Shadow Inventory

Definition of ‘Shadow Inventory’

A term that refers to real estate properties that are either in foreclosure and have not yet been sold or homes that owners are delaying putting on the market until prices improve. Shadow inventory can create uncertainty about the best time to sell (for owners) and when a local market can expect full recovery. Also, shadow inventory typically causes reported data on housing inventory to understate the actual number of inventory in the market.

Investopedia explains ‘Shadow Inventory’

With the unprecedented number of foreclosures stemming from the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2007-2008 and the overall housing market collapse during that crisis, lenders were left with significant real estate holdings. Many lenders were slow to put their inventory up for sale for fear of flooding the market and further driving down prices, which would in turn lower their potential ROI.

The utterance of the term “shadow inventory” can conjure up fear, uncertainty and mystery about the future of the housing market.

First coined to describe the volume of lender-repossessed properties that haven’t yet reached the market as REOs (bank-owned listings), the term has been expanded by some to include homes in a foreclosure process and even those with delinquent loans that haven’t yet entered the foreclosure process.

These various definitions have added to the confusion about its potential threat to the housing market and economy as a whole.

One of the great economic success stories of 2012 was that the housing market finally found a bottom, and even began to show signs of a nascent recovery. But even as positive data on the real estate market began to trickle in early last year, not everyone was convinced. The main reason for skepticism were millions of homes that had not yet hit the market, but probably would soon — either because they were already inforeclosure or because the homeowners were so far behind on payments that foreclosures were imminent. These properties, which last year were estimated to range anywhere from 3 million to 10 million in number, were dubbed the “shadow inventory” of homes.

The reason the shadow inventory was thought to be bad news for the housing market was that when these homes finally did go up for sale, they would overwhelm the demand for housing, which had slowed in recent years due to the poor economy and sluggish population growth. But a recent report from analytics firm CoreLogic says that the shadow inventory as of October 2012 has fallen to 2.3 million, a 12.3% drop year-over-year. In other words, this catalog of homes has been reduced significantly without the detrimental effect on nationwide home prices that some had feared. So what happened, and why has the dreaded shadow inventory not yet sunk the convalescent U.S. housing market? I asked Sam Khater, Deputy Chief Economist at CoreLogic, and he outlined three key reasons:

Investors Got in on the Game

The housing recovery was prevented for so long in part because of tight credit standards and because so many homeowners owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. This left many homeowners unable to take advantage of increasingly cheap prices. But by 2012, home prices had fell so far that it became lucrative for investors — either investment vehicles like real estate investment trusts or individual investors looking to earn extra income as landlords — to snap up real estate at historically low prices. Khater says the speed and enthusiasm with which investors bought these properties was a bit of a surprise, and one of the main reasons why the market was able to work off a significant chunk of shadow inventory without it depressing home prices.

Lenders Ramped Up Principal Forgiveness

When a homeowner cannot repay his mortgage, mortgage lenders often end up losing a lot of money even after they repossesses and resell the home. Homes sold after foreclosure sell for a deep discount, and going through foreclosure proceedings is very costly for banks as they must continue to pay taxes and upkeep costs while the process unfolds. So modifying a delinquent loan so the borrowers can remain in the home, even if it means forgiving principal, can sometimes make sense for all parties involved.

The problem is that the securitization of home loans, whereby loans are pooled and sliced up into different payment “tranches,” or bundles, made it so that there wasn’t one specific investor who could decide to modify a loan. And the fight over who would bear the losses when a mortgage was modified prevented much modification from happening at all.

Beginning with the $25 billion mortgage settlement between the nation’s largest mortgage servicers and states attorneys general, however, the tide began to shift a bit. Banks have been forced, because of the terms of that settlement, to engage in principal-reducing mortgage modifications, which have helped keep homeowners out of foreclosure and, thereby, their homes off the market. According to a recent report from the OCC the share of loan modifications made by servicers in the third quarter of 2012 that include principal reduction have risen 110.6% when compared to the similar period in 2011.

Many Homeowners Remain Underwater

Even with the improving housing market, many homeowners remain underwater. Paradoxically, this has buttressed the housing market of late, as it keeps these homeowners from putting their property on the market. These homeowners being locked out of the market, combined with avid interest from investors in cheap residential real estate, has led to the amount of homes for sale being historically very low. And when supply is restrained, prices go up. As prices rise, more homeowners will get out from their underwater mortgages. “This dynamic will unlock some borrowers, but it won’t lead to a flood of new homes on the market,” Khater says. “It’ll be more of a slight opening of the spigot.”

All this goes to show that predicting the movement of large, complex markets like housing can be difficult even for experts who make a living doing just that. A year ago, many smart people took a look at the inventory waiting on the sidelines, and couldn’t imagine the market being able to absorb it. The fact that lenders are more aggressively modifying mortgages and a new investor class has stepped up to take advantage of cheap prices shows that even the savviest of analysts can be caught off guard by new trends.

The number of homes in “shadow inventory” dropped from 2.6 million in October 2011 to 2.3 million in October 2012, according to a new report from CoreLogic.

Shadow inventory refers to the supply of homes that are in foreclosure or have seriously delinquent mortgages but are not yet on the market.

Many housing experts once predicted that the shadow inventory would cause overall inventories to skyrocket and place downward pressure on home prices. Yet an increase in short sales and loan modifications have helped to lessen the impact, analysts say.

“The size of the shadow inventory continues to shrink from peak levels in terms of numbers of units and the dollars they represent,” says Anand Nallathambi, president of CoreLogic. “We expect a gradual and progressive contraction in the shadow inventory in 2013 as investors continue to snap up foreclosed and REO properties and the broader recovery in housing market fundamentals takes hold.”

 
A new report from CoreLogic shows that the shadow inventory of homes fell 12.3 percent in October from a year ago.

Also known as pending supply, shadow inventory represents the houses that are intended for sale but aren’t yet on the market.

There are 2.3 million units in the shadows, which represent a seven month supply.

“The size of the shadow inventory continues to shrink from peak levels in terms of numbers of units and the dollars they represent,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “We expect a gradual and progressive contraction in the shadow inventory in 2013 as investors continue to snap up foreclosed and REO properties and the broader recovery in housing market fundamentals takes hold.”

Here are some key points from the report.

• As of October 2012, shadow inventory fell to 2.3 million units, or seven months’ supply, and represented 85 percent of the 2.7 million properties currently seriously delinquent, in foreclosure or in REO.
• Of the 2.3 million properties currently in the shadow inventory (Figures 1 and 2), 1.04 million units are seriously delinquent (3.3 months’ supply), 903,000 are in some stage of foreclosure (2.8 months’ supply) and 354,000 are already in REO (1.1 months’ supply).
• As of October 2012, the dollar volume of shadow inventory was $376 billion, down from $399 billion a year ago.
• Over the three months ending in October 2012, serious delinquencies, which are the main driver of the shadow inventory, declined the most in Arizona (13.3 percent), California (9.7 percent), Michigan (6.8 percent), Colorado (6.8 percent) and Wyoming (5.9 percent).
• As of October 2012, Florida, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey make up 45 percent of the 2.7 million properties that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure or in REO. In October 2011, these same states made up 51.3 percent of all the distressed mortgages that were at least 90 days delinquent, in foreclosure or REO.

Filed Under Bucks County Real Estate + bucks county realtor + buying real estate + Existing Home Sales + first time home buyers + Foreclosures + Martin Millner Real Estate + marty millner + Real Estate