Homes that were either bank owned or in some stage of foreclosure accounted for 23% of all U.S. residential sales during the second quarter, according to new data from Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac. This figure is up from 22% of all sales in the first quarter and up from 19% of all sales in the second quarter of 2011.
However, RealtyTrac notes that although foreclosure-related sales as a percentage of total sales increased, the raw number of foreclosure-related sales in the second quarter (224,429) decreased 12% from the previous quarter and was down 22% from the second quarter of 2011 – the first annual decrease in foreclosure-related sales after five quarters of increases.
The average foreclosure-related sales price in the second quarter ($170,040) increased 6% from the previous quarter and was up 7% from the second quarter of 2011 – the first annual increase in average price since the second quarter of 2010 and the biggest annual increase since the fourth quarter of 2006. Homes in foreclosure or bank owned sold at an average price that was 32% lower than the average price of a non-foreclosure home, up from a 30% discount in the first quarter and also up 30% from the second quarter of 2011.
The gap between bank-owned sales and short sales continued to shrink in the second quarter, with bank-owned sales outnumbering pre-foreclosure sales by 9,833, the smallest difference since the third quarter of 2007. Pre-foreclosure sales outnumbered bank-owned sales in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Foreclosure sales accounted for 43% of all residential sales in both Georgia and Nevada in the second quarter, the two highest percentages among the states.
‘The second-quarter sales numbers provide solid statistical evidence of what we've been hearing anecdotally from real estate agents, buyers and investors over the past few months: there is a limited supply of available foreclosure inventory to choose from in many markets,’ says Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president. ‘Given this shortage of supply and the seasonally strong buyer demand in the second quarter, it's no surprise that the average foreclosure-related sales price increased both on a quarterly and annual basis.’
