Sacramento Repo Homes Auctioned Off Quickly
April 23rd, 2009 by 
Joseph Smith
A total of 190 repo homes were sold for a total of $21 million by auctioneers Real Estate Disposition Corp. and Hudson & Marshall in Sacramento last weekend.
Irvine-based REDC sold 162 repo homes for a total of $17.1 million while Dallas-based Hudson sold 30 repo homes for a total of $4 million.
Since June 2007, REDC has already sold 1,912 repo homes located in Sacramento for a total of $261.4 million. REDC spokesperson Rick Weinberg said his firm has conducted nine auctions in Sacramento since June 2007, collecting $66.9 million in 2007 and $158.7 million last year for the mortgage lenders who repossessed the properties from homeowners who were not able to pay their mortgage loans. During the first months of 2009, the firm has already sold repo homes for a total of $35.8 million. The firm estimated that 70 percent of buyers were families that plan to occupy the homes and that 30 percent were investors.
Hudson & Marshall has held 8 auctions in Sacramento since the nationwide foreclosure problem started, selling 200 repo homes in 2008. Hudson spokesperson Crystal Wright said Hudson has sold a total of 1,000 repo homes located in Northern California in 2008. The Sacramento auction was one of 8 foreclosure auctions held by Hudson across Northern California that collected $42.5 million for mortgage lenders who owned the repo homes.
Weinberg related that REDC has sold over 6,500 repo homes in Northern California since the wave of forclosure homes began in 2007. He said the defaults were driven by subprime and other high-risk lending and rising unemployment rates.
Based on research from MDA DataQuick, the counties in Northern California with the highest number of repo homes are El Dorado, Amador, Nevada, Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba. MDA said it expects to release a report showing increases in notices of default, which are given by mortgage lenders when homeowners fail to pay several monthly amortizations.
REDC spokesperson Weinberg also cited the large declines in home prices in the auctions held by REDC. In June 2007, REDC sold 107 repo homes for a total of $26.5 million, averaging almost $248,000 for each house sold. Last weekend, the 162 repo homes sold averaged only about $106,000.
Dave Webb, founder of Hudson & Marshall, affirmed the large declines in home values. He said last weekend’s auction averaged only about $133,000 for each house sold.
