Foreclosures Dominate a Sagging Real Estate Market

July 6 — Results in the real estate market for 2010’s first quarter reflect a dismal picture for the most part. With $8000 tax credits a thing of the past (and which probably sucked up a lot of future demand), real estate sales hit the skids again. A report from RealtyTrac highlighted by Bloomberg showed that foreclosed properties accounted for 31% of the U.S. home sales in the quarter. Fortunately for buyers and unfortunately for sellers, the average price for foreclosed properties was 27% below that of regular sales. The RealtyTrac report noted that “In a normal market, only 1 to 2 percent of home sales are foreclosures.”

Short sales during the period had about a 15% discount from normal sales. Mortgage delinquency rates were 9.2% in May. In a rare but probably not meaningful piece of good news, home prices rose .8% in April, the first rise in 7 months.