Realty Trac Releases its Q2 Foreclosure Sales Report

Realty Trac recently released its sales reports for foreclosures in the US during the second quarter of the year. This report shows sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure, or which were owned by the bank accounted for 23% of all residential sales during the second quarter, slightly up from 22% during the first quarter.

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Although the percentage of foreclosure related sales increased slightly as a percentage, the raw numbers were down by 12% compared to the previous quarter, and down by 22% compared to the same period last year. This is the first annual decrease in foreclosure related sales and follows five quarters of increases. The average price of foreclosure related sales increased by 6% in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, to reach $170,040. This figure was also up 7% compared to the second quarter of last year, and is the first annual increase in average prices since the second quarter of 2010, and is the largest annual increase since the last quarter of 2006.

The average price of a bank owned home, or a home in foreclosure was 32% lower than a non-foreclosure home, slightly higher than the 30% discount seen in the first quarter, and in the second quarter of last year. The gap between short sales and bank owned sales continued to decline, with pre-foreclosure sales being outnumbered by bank owned sales by 9,833. This is the smallest gap since the third quarter of 2007.

Realty Trac also analyzed short sales transactions on a properties not yet in foreclosure, and found the numbers had increased by 18% year-on-year between January and May, and that non-foreclosure short sales accounted for 14% of sales during this period.

Darren Blomquist, vice president of Realty Trac commented on this report saying '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. 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.'

You can read the full report here.