Real Estate: Foreclosures account for more than half of Nevada home sales

BY THE NUMBERS
53 percent
Distressed properties accounted for 53 percent of 2011's first-quarter home sales in Nevada.
720
There were 720 distressed property sales in Washoe County in the first quarter, and 8,322 in Nevada.
21 percent
On average, distressed properties in the state were 21 percent cheaper than non-distressed properties.
Distressed properties accounted for more than half of first-quarter home sales in Nevada, which continued to hold the highest share of foreclosure-related sales in the nation.
Distressed sales accounted for 53 percent of all Nevada residential sales in January through March, easily eclipsing the 28 percent share seen nationwide, according to national foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac. The percentage is an improvement overall, however, down from 54 percent of all sales in the previous quarter and 59 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
Washoe County accounted for 720 of the 8,322 distressed sales in Nevada during the first quarter. Washoe County's rate of distressed sales -- 50.6 -- was lower than the rest of the state.
But, the average "foreclosure discount" in Washoe was higher than the rest of Nevada. On average, distressed properties in Washoe County were 21 percent cheaper than nondistressed properties. The average discount for the state was 17.5 percent.
The trends are a mixed bag so far nationwide as the U.S. housing market continues to inch toward stability, said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio.
Weeding through the distressed inventory likely will take a few more years, he added.
"While foreclosure sales continue to account for an unusually high percentage of all residential home sales, sales volume is well off the peak we saw in the first quarter of 2009, when nearly 350,000 foreclosure properties sold to third parties," Saccacio said.
"While this is probably helping to keep home prices relatively stable, it is also delaying the housing recovery," he said.
"At the first-quarter foreclosure sales pace, it would take exactly three years to clear the current inventory of 1.9 million properties already on the banks' books, or in foreclosure," Saccacio said.