U.S. distressed sales fall to just 9% of home sales

Distressed sales in the U.S. have dropped to just 9.4% of all sales, with REO sales hitting their lowest level since 2007

U.S. distressed sales – which include real estate-owned properties and short sales – fell to just 9.4% of total home sales in July, according to new data from CoreLogic. That’s down 2.1 percentage points from July of 2014 and o.4 percentage points from last month.

Within the category, REO sales made up 6.1% of all U.S. home sales in July, while short sales made up 3.3%. The REO share was at its lowest level since 2007.

The move away from REO sales is driving improved home prices, since bank-owned properties usually sell at a larger discount than short sales, according to CoreLogic. However, distressed sales as a whole are still quite a bit higher than they were prior to the housing meltdown. The pre-crisis level of distressed sales was normally around 2%. If the current trend continues, distressed sales would reach that “normal” mark in mid-2019.

Florida had the largest share of distressed sales in July at 20.7%, followed by Maryland (20.6%), Michigan (20.2%), Connecticut (19.1%) and Illinois (18.9%).

Nevada saw the largest year-over-year drop in distressed sales, plummeting 6.4 percentage points. California had the largest improvement from its peak distressed sale share. In January of 2009, California’s distressed sale share was 67.4%; since then, it’s fallen 58.6 percentage points.