Foreclosures Were 26% of Home Sales in Q1 as Short Sales Rose

The increase was driven by a spike in short sales, or homes that sell for less than what the owner owed on their mortgage, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Short sales make up the vast majority of homes sold while still in the foreclosure process. Those that aren't sold or auctioned off typically end up being repossessed by banks, what most people commonly think of as foreclosures.

In the first quarter, short sales grew 25% from a year earlier, hitting a three-year high. In contrast, sales of bank-owned properties declined 15% versus the first three months of last year, the firm said.

The trend indicates a greater likelihood that home prices will continue to soften, as foreclosures and short sales typically sell at sharp discounts to other homes.

It also suggests a shift in the way lenders handle mortgages that have gone unpaid.

Lenders may be favoring short sales versus waiting for troubled loans to go through the foreclosure process to take back the homes securing the loan, said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.

"A short sale is a safer alternative to avoid any potential problems that they face because of the way they're processing foreclosures," Blomquist said.

Last year, mortgage lenders grappled with allegations that they had been processing foreclosures without verifying documents. The pace of foreclosures slowed sharply as the nation's biggest mortgage lenders worked to hammer out a settlement with state and federal officials.

They reached a $25 billion settlement in February, clearing the way for banks to take action on unpaid mortgages.

All told, 233,299 bank-owned homes or those in some stage of foreclosure sold in the first quarter, making up 26% of all U.S. home sales in the period, the firm said.

That's the highest percentage of overall sales since the figure hit 28% in the third quarter of 2010, before the foreclosure abuse claims against mortgage lenders surfaced.

Foreclosure sales made up 22% of all sales in the last three months of 2011 and one-fourth in the first quarter a year ago.

As of end of April, there were 637,668 bank-owned homes yet to be sold, representing a 17-month supply, Blomquist said. Another 722,467 were in some stage of the foreclosure process.

Sales of all previously occupied homes jumped in January to the highest pace in nearly two years, but declined slightly the next two months. Sales rose 3.4% in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. That nearly matched January's pace of 4.63 million, but was below the nearly 6 million that most economists equate with healthy markets.

While rising, the share of foreclosure sales remains well below its first-quarter 2009 peak of 45% of all sales. They comprised less than 1% of all sales in 2005, at the height of the housing boom.

• <p class="p1"> For real estate buyers who have the cash and credit to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates, there is one market type that tends to be more resilient than others: the college town.</p><br /> <p class="p1"> Established, big-name universities, with their steady and ever-replenishing supplies of new students, faculty and administrators, virtually guarantee tenants and future buyers. Additionally, more retirees are choosing to move to college towns for the cultural amenities. Of course, the downsides for home buyers, particularly investors, are that renting in college towns is a somewhat seasonal business, with a summer decline, and there's always the threat of keg-party damage.</p><br /> <p> <em>Foreclosure sales data compiled by</em> <a href="http://www.foreclosurenewsreport.com/" target="_blank">Foreclosure News Report </a><em>for the first half of 2011.</em></p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>Stanford University</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>94</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$350,886</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>69%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>17%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>Ohio State University</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>999</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$57,700</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>58%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>17%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>University of Louisville</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>889</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$84,495</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>51%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>25%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>Northwestern University</strong></p> <p> </p> <br /> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>74</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$190,930</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>47%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>24%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>Louisiana State University</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>221</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$115,043</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>45%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>14%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>University of Arizona</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>3,068</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$116,916</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>41%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>50%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>University of Tennessee</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>431</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$108,595</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>41%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>8%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>Florida State University</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>339</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$112,790</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>35%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>29%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>Texas Tech University</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>74</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$91,454</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>33%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>5%</strong></p> <p> </p>
• <p> The College Town of: <strong>University of Michigan</strong></p> <br /> <p> </p> <p> Amount of properties sold: <strong>130</strong></p> <br /> <p> Average price of foreclosures: <strong>$181,766</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent below the average price of properties: <strong>31%</strong></p> <br /> <p> Percent of foreclosures from all home sales: <strong>24%</strong></p> <p> </p>
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More foreclosure sales also means potentially more pain for homeowners, who could see the value of their homes erode further as neighboring foreclosures sell.

Combined, bank-owned homes and those still in the foreclosure process sold for an average of $161,214 in the first quarter. That's down 1% from the fourth quarter of last year and down 2% from the first quarter of 2011.

Compared to non-foreclosure homes, the average price of a foreclosure sale was 27% below the average sales price of a home not in foreclosure or owned by a bank during the quarter. That discount is unchanged from the fourth quarter last year, but is down from a discount of 29% in the first quarter of 2011.