Home foreclosures are a quarter of all United States home sales

RealtyTrac's quarterly report on the foreclosure market showed that more than a fourth of all domestic home sales during the first quarter of the year were bargains on foreclosure properties. Excessive foreclosures bring down the cost of houses, making industry recover more difficult. The news, regarded with last week’s grim jobs report, further supports the conclusion that the slow financial recovery is not picking up much steam at the moment. Resource for this article: Get more details from my web page.

Cost of a foreclosure makes it appealing

About 26 percent of all houses were foreclosures in the first quarter of 2012 sales, according to the quarterly Foreclosure Sales Report. That is four percent higher than it was a year ago and one percent higher than it was last quarter.

The average price of a foreclosure or bank-owned property, at $161,214, is about 2 percent lower than at the end of the first quarter of 2011. It is also 1 percent lower than in the previous quarter.

Seeing more short sales

In order to keep away from getting repossessed by the bank, more owners are selling in pre-foreclosure, according to Brandon Moore, RealtyTrac/s chief executive officer:

"Foreclosure-related sales picked up in the first quarter, particularly pre-foreclosure sales where a distressed homeowner is selling to avoid foreclosure -- typically via short sale. Those pre-foreclosure sales hit a three-year high in the first quarter, even as the average pre-foreclosure sales price dropped to a record low for our report."

For the first quarter of the year, the average pre-foreclosure home price was $175,461, which is 4 percent more than it was during the last quarter of 2011 and 10 percent higher from a year ago.

From the fourth quarter of 2011, the number of pre-foreclosure sales increased 16 percent. They increased 25 percent from a year ago.

Seeing REO inventory sales

Homes which were legally repossessed and not sold at auctions are called Real Estate Owned, or REO, houses. The cost of bank-owned homes is leveling up, and cost of REO homes increased in 21 states. It suggests that REO homes have a backlog that needs to be sold in many areas.

The Specifically stated foreclosure rates

The states with the most foreclosure sales as a percentage of all property sales integrated Nevada at 56 percent, 47 percent in California and 46 percent in GA.

Sources

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RealtyTrac

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