Shielding auctions rise in Q1 after VA Moratorium expires
The activity increased in all borrowing types except those by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Loans guaranteed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (Va) saw the sharpest jump, with an auction volume more than double year after year after the expiry of a moratorium shielding at the end of 2024.
While the execution volume was higher, the demand of auction buyers showed signs of weakening in the midst of economic uncertainty. The sales price of the shielding auction ownership property sold to buyers of third-party-Begon the year strongly but fell sharply in February to a lowest point of 26 months before he partially returned in March. In general, the sales percentage of Q1 2025 fell compared to a year ago.
Ownership of ownership (REO) auction activity, involving characteristics that have returned to money lenders, also showed mixed signals. The number of bidders per active rose slightly compared to the previous quarter, but the sales percentage fell by 16% compared to a year ago.
Half of the large metro lines analyzed by Auction.com has fallen on an annual basis in the demand for shielding auction.
Large markets such as Houston, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis and Atlanta recorded a double digits. Meanwhile, cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, DC and Minneapolis saw modest profit.
The buyer clearly warns as the competition slips
Data from Veiling.com show that the competition-the share of the value after the repair that buyers are willing to pay-in the beginning of 2025 flattened compared to the previous quarter and a year earlier.
The demand for execution protection price that was consecutively consecutively held at 56.7%, an increase of 55.9% in Q4 2024, but a decrease of 59% a year earlier, the report showed.
Monthly figures reflected a steady erosion, because the competition year after year in January fell by 2%, 4% in February and 6% in March. REO auctions followed a similar pattern, with the first win in January that faded in Raldingen in March.
Of the 76 markets analyzed, 59% registered a decrease in the annual decrease in demand for execution protection auction. Cities such as Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Dallas saw the sharpest falls. A few markets have covered the trend, including Minneapolis, where the competition rose 57% per year.
State level recovery uneven
The auction of the shielding auction grew the most sharply in Arizona (an increase of 151%), Utah (100%), New Hampshire (an increase of 80%), Kansas (an increase of 74%) and Texas (an increase of 73%). Trends were mixed among larger states. Texas, Illinois and Michigan booked annual increases, while New York and Ohio placed decreases.
Various states, including Connecticut, Colorado, Wyoming and Minnesota, reported executive auction volumes above pre-Pandemic levels.
The REO offer also rose modestly and climbed by 2% compared to the previous quarter and 3% of a year earlier to reach a six-quarter high.
Copper seller disconnection
The gap between copper offers and the seller’s expectations remained stable for shielding auctions but reduced for REO auctions.
With shielding auctions, the spread kept 7 percentage points, more than double the 3-point distribution that was seen a year ago. The price of the seller increased by 100 basic points compared to the previous quarter, which contributed to the wider gap. For REO auctions, the spread limited to 10 points, against 12 points in Q4 2024, which was largely due to stronger bids.
A total of 93,953 real estate had a shield request from January to March – an increase of 11% compared to the previous quarter, according to recent data from Attitude.
