Buy-to-rent real estate investor interest leads to increase in foreclosure auctions

RealtyTrac reports that nationally, October foreclosure activity declined 28 percent from a year ago, but rose 2 percent from September, largely because of a 10 percent increase in scheduled auctions in states where courts process foreclosure cases.

“Lenders are likely moving these properties more rapidly to the public auction, given that there is strong demand from institutional buy-to-rent investors at the auction and that rising home prices mean more of the losses can be recouped, either by selling to an investor at the auction or by repossessing the property and reselling (it) as bank-owned,” Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac vice president, said in a release in a Chicago Tribune article.