Foreclosure sales made up 20 percent of all homes sold despite lower numbers in 3Q.

Foreclosure sales fell in 3Q, but still made up 20 percent of all homes sold

By Associated Press, Published: January 25

LOS ANGELES — Foreclosures made up a smaller slice of all U.S. homes sold in last year’s third quarter, as banks delayed placing properties for sale and home sales slowed.
Despite the decline, foreclosures still represented 20 percent of all homes sold in the July-September period — about four times more than at the height of the housing boom, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

As of Dec. 31, there were more than 680,000 U.S. homes owned by banks and another 715,000 in some stage of foreclosure, Blomquist said.
All told, 221,536 bank-owned homes and others in the foreclosure process were sold in 2011’s third quarter. That’s down 11 percent from the second quarter and down 5 percent from the third quarter of 2010.

Foreclosures, often in need of repair, typically sell at big discounts and weaken prices for neighboring homes.
Homebuyers who purchased a foreclosure in the third quarter paid an average of $165,322, representing a discount of 34 percent from the average sale price of all other homes, RealtyTrac said.

The discount was unchanged from the April-June quarter, but declined from 37 percent in the third quarter of 2010.Nevada led all states with foreclosure sales accounting for nearly 57 percent of all home sales, RealtyTrac said.

Several other states had foreclosure sales that made up at least 20 percent of all homes purchased in the third quarter: California, Arizona, Georgia, Colorado and Michigan.

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