More than a quarter of U.S. homes sold in the first quarter were bank-owned or in pre-foreclosure, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.
That’s 233,299 residential properties, 26% of all sales, according to the Irvine-based data tracker. Compared with the fourth quarter, foreclosure-related purchases were up 8% but flat from a year ago.
The average sale price of such homes? $161,214, down 2% from the year-earlier quarter and a 27% discount on the value of the average non-foreclosure home.
Although such sales increased quarter to quarter in 21 states, hinting at a bottleneck of unsold inventory, the overall trend suggests stabilization, RealtyTrac experts said.
California has the second-highest percentage of foreclosure sales in the country, with 47% of home sales falling into the category. Nevada is the highest with 56%; Georgia is third with 46%.
In March, the number of homes struggling through foreclosure held steady from February and fell from the year-earlier period, Santa Ana research firm CoreLogic said earlier this month.
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