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Legal loopholes have been preventing banks from foreclosing on some properties in recent years, so now they're making up for lost time. Banks seized 133,811 properties in Q3, with the number of homes repossessed up 66% from 2014, National Real Estate Investor reports.
States with the biggest increases in foreclosures were New York, where repossessions jumped 469% to 4,435; New Jersey, which rose 351% to 6,858; and Florida, which increased 34% to 22,252. Many of these homes will likely hit the market in the next six months to a year.
This additional inventory creates a great opportunity for institutional investors, which RealtyTrac defines as a buyer that purchases 10 or more homes in a year. Institutional investors only bought 1.9% of homes (16,000) in Q3, down from 5% a year ago. The cities with the largest portion of institutional buyers were Montgomery, AL; Columbus, GA; Muskegon, MI; El Paso, TX; and Jacksonville, FL. [NREI]
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