HUD Auctions

I was perusing the price reduced listings yesterday and found it interesting the number of HUD (Housing and Urban Development) owned homes that had price reductions. It is my assumption there must be a set policies for these homes that fail to sell. It appears that every 30 days the price is lowered. How low will they go? Should we just sit and watch? For the most part these are ‘starter homes’ many well under $100,000 which even in this market is a great deal. Homes in this price range often have multiple offers so it got my wondering why these HUD homes are not selling. I think the reason for them languishing on the market because HUD chooses to sell them by closed auction through a fairly daunting online process of blind bidding. I think most buyers and agents don’t want to be bothered with the process when there are other homes available. Plan and simple it is a pain in the butt.

I remember 8 – 9 years ago when no one knew what a short sale was and foreclosed homes where a thing rarely seen. Back in ‘the olden days’ there was a website called Golden Feather that listed the few HUD foreclosure homes available, and we had to bid on these homes. There is now an equivalent website that lists close to 1500 homes just in the Boise/Meridian area. Every month these homes sit on the market with price continuing the downward spiral they take bring down the value of the entire neighborhood because HUD has not moved out of this antiquated model few are willing bother with any more. Get with it HUD!