Distressed Property Sales: Differences and Similarities Across Types of Distress

This study analyzes the price and time-on-market effects of short sale and lender-owned properties in the single-family housing market during the recent housing crisis. Short sales increased dramatically during the downturn as an alternative to foreclosures and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure transactions for resolution of defaulted mortgage loans. Using multiple listing service data, this study provides evidence that the price discounts associated with short sales and lender-owned properties differed significantly early in the crisis, but by the end of our sample the discounts were relatively similar in the sample market, which was not as hard-hit by the housing market downturn as markets examined in prior research. Using new time-on-market estimation methodology, the time-on-market results indicate that both short sale properties and foreclosed properties stayed on the market significantly longer than non-distressed properties, which differs from prior findings that foreclosed properties sell faster than non-distressed properties. The study also provides some evidence that different seller types (i.e. short sale-seller versus lender-seller) exhibit differences in their abilities to time their market entry.