Distressed Sales Fall to Eight-Year Low

Sales of distressed properties in April 2015 hit their lowest point since April 2007, according to a report released Thursday by CoreLogic.

According to CoreLogic, distressed sales comprised 11 percent of home sales nationally in April. This is down 3 percentage points from last April and 1.5 percentage points from March. It is also far below the January 2009 peak in which distressed sales accounted for a third of U.S. home sales.

Pre-crisis, distressed sales usually hovered around 2 percent, the report stated. CoreLogic expects the numbers to return to this mark by mid-2017, a claim bolstered by the ongoing shift away from REO sales. REO sales made up 7.4 percent of total distressed sales in April, while short sales made up 3.7 percent. This shift, CoreLogic wrote, is a driver of improving home prices.

The national numbers, however, are quite a bit lower than those in the five states with the heftiest shares of distressed sales. In Michigan and Florida, 21.7 percent of April sales were distressed properties. Close behind were Maryland, Illinois, and Connecticut, which all had more than 19 percent distressed sales.

Orlando, Miami, and Tampa had the highest metro-area numbers for the month. All reported that almost a quarter of their April sales were distressed properties. Chicago and Baltimore came a close second and third, each reporting distressed sales around 20 percent. On the flip side, Atlanta reported an 8.3 percent drop in distressed sales compared to April of 2014 ‒‒ from 23.5 percent to 15.2 percent.

California, which saw distressed sales comprise two-thirds of its January, 2009, sales, finally fell below 10 percent in April. Distressed sales made up 9.7 percent of the state’s April sales. The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro, which in February, 2009, saw distressed sales comprise 76.3 percent of its sales, reported 12. 7 percent distressed sales in April.

Nevada’s distressed property sales dropped by almost 8 percent in April. Meanwhile, North Dakota and the District of Columbia reported pre-crisis figures, each at around 1 percent.