The Maryland Coast Dispatch had an interesting article this Friday about the impact of, what might be, a potential tsunami of Ocean City Maryland resort condominium and home foreclosures and REOs in the future:
“Locally however, Worcester County is below both the state and national average for foreclosure properties, but, according to Robert Smith, supervisor of Worcester County Assessments, there is reason to be concerned on both the short term and the long term, as far as what your house is potentially worth.
“Foreclosures aren’t the driving force yet when it comes to what properties are being assessed at, but it could very possibly end up that way if things don’t improve,” said Smith. “Right now, foreclosures are looked at, but not factored into the equation when we are assessing a property, but that could change if numbers continue to rise.”
To date in 2010, 22 of the 113 condominiums (excluding new construction) that have been sold so far are foreclosed properties.
In Ocean Pines of the 25 single-family homes that have sold this year, five were foreclosures.
Smith says that buyers are in some cases, opting to drive the price down during negotiations based on the foreclosure or short sale properties in the neighborhood or area. He says that even though real estate numbers are starting to pick up, the price that properties are being sold for will have long-term effects on future assessments and tax revenues.”
The fall of prices and the effects of REOs and foreclosures, for anyone who is considering buying an Ocean City Maryland area property, will probably be the biggest story of this decade– just like price increases during the bubble were the biggest story of the last decade.
Stay tuned. This story has a number of chapters left.
The full article–
