Free Specialist Consultation!

Short Sale Guide

Short Sale News

Connect With Us

Foreclosures Make Up 24% of Sales in Second Quarter

Foreclosures made up almost one-fourth of all residential home sales in the second quarter of 2010, according to a report from real estate data tracker RealtyTrac. Short sales, REOs, and deeds-in-lieu are also climbing up.

Close to 250,000 homes sold from April to June of this year were at least in the early stages of foreclosure, making up 24% of the entire inventory sold. Although down 20% from a year ago, the numbers are 5% higher than they were in the previous quarter.

These foreclosures sold for an average of 26% lower than the average market price for the quarter. This can mean better opportunities ahead for real estate investors, but also a blow to those who were counting on property value increases.

Real estate-owned (REO) homes—those that failed to get bids at a foreclosure auction, have reverted to the bank’s ownership, and are now being privately sold—went up 3% over the quarter to 151,290, but is down by 20% from the same quarter in 2009.

Short sales also went up by 26% from the first quarter, according to a report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). This means a rise of 250% over the year, a sign that short sales have become a significant part of foreclosure prevention efforts.

Deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, on the other hand, are less popular, although also on the rise. Around 2,000 deeds-in-lieu were carried out in the second quarter, approximately twice that of the previous quarter, according to the same FHFA report.