Could the foreclosure crisis finally be fading away? REO and short sales comprised about 11 percent of total home sales in July, the lowest share since December 2007, CoreLogic reports. At its peak, distressed sales made up 32.5 percent of all sales in January 2009.
“The ongoing shift away from REO sales is a driver of improving home prices, as REOs typically sell at a larger discount than do short sales,” CoreLogic notes. “There will always be some amount of distress in the housing market, so one would never expect a 0-percent distressed sales share, and by comparison, the pre-crisis share of distressed sales was traditionally about 2 percent.”
The pre-crisis share of distressed sales typically was about 2 percent, so analysts say there is still a ways to go. Of all states, California posted the largest drop in distressed sales, falling 54.8 percent from the January 2009 peak to 67.4 percent in July.
