Foreclosures Are A Quarter Of US Home Sales--Realtytrac

Homes in foreclosures were one of four house sales in the final quarter of last year. The discounts on the prices of these homes tends to push down the value of houses nearby. The multiplying effect of that will be to keep average homes sales across the US low.

RealtyTrac reports that its 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report shows

that sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 24 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the fourth quarter — up from 20 percent of all sales in the previous quarter, but down from 26 percent of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2010.

And

The average sales price of homes in foreclosure or bank owned was $164,944 in the fourth quarter, nearly identical to the average foreclosure-related sales price in the previous quarter and down 5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. The average price of a foreclosure-related sale was 29 percent below the average price of a non-foreclosure sale during the quarter, down from a 34 percent foreclosure discount in the third quarter and down from a 35 percent foreclosure discount in the fourth quarter of 2010.