Some interesting news — and grim news for states including Michigan and Georgia — from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York about the number of REO loans nationally and per state. (REO = Real Estate Owned, i.e. properties now owned by lenders).
As of June 2012, REOs comprised 1.87 percent of all loans in Georgia. That’s second worst only to Michigan at 2.33 percent.
Minnesota (surprisingly) is third at 1.61 percent. Illinois is fourth at 1.51 percent. Nevada is fifth at 1.41 percent.
As of June 2012, Georgia had 33,537 REO loans, according to the analysis. That number ranks 5th in the country and represents 7.6 percent of all REO loans in the nation.
Housing economist Tom Lawler has posted at Calculated Risk the total number of REOs by region and state.
The high number of REOs in Georgia has certainly played a huge role in the state’s banking crisis and has had a variety of other negative effects on the state’s economy. That drag isn’t going away anytime soon.