RealtyTrac said today that 20 percent of all U.S. home sales during the third quarter were foreclosures, down from 22 percent in the previous quarter and 30 percent during the third quarter of 2010. In Minnesota the trend was opposite - foreclosure sales rose, but they represent a much smaller share of all deals than the nation as whole.
In Minnesota 14.26 percent of all sales were foreclosures, up 4 percent from second quarter and 7.53 percent higher than the third quarter 2010. The average foreclosure sale price was $140,667, an average discount of 31 percent off traditional sales. Nevada had the highest foreclosure penetration sales, accounting for nearly 57 percent of all deals - a 24 percent increase from last year.
Earlier this month I reported that half of all homes sales during 2011 were foreclosures or short sales in the Twin Cities metro area alone, down slightly from the previous year. The RealtyTrac data doesn't include short sales and is based on a sampling of data. The general consensus among analysts is that foreclosure penetration needs to dip below 30 percent before real price stabilization can take place. In a normal market, foreclosures represent about 3 to 5 percent of all deals. New national home sales were also released today, but that report doesn't include local or state figures. Nor do any local groups exclusively track new home sales.
