Report: 23 percent of Dallas-area home in January sales were distressed properties

About 23 percent of Dallas-Fort Worth area home sales in January were distressed properties.

But that’s low compared to most other major housing markets, a new industry report shows.

Sales of previously foreclosed houses and other distressed properties accounted for 29 percent of U.S. home sales in January, First American CoreLogic said Thursday. That’s down slightly from a record high 32 percent in April 2009.

In the Dallas Fort Worth area, about 23 percent of home sales at the start of 2010 were distressed properties, slightly lower than a year earlier. Only Houston and New York had a lower share of distressed homes being sold, the First American CoreLogic study found.

Looking at the 25 largest U.S. home markets, Riverside, Calif., had the biggest share of distressed home sales – 62 percent – followed by Las Vegas, 59 percent, and Sacramento, 58 percent.

Distressed home sales – particularly short sales where a lender agrees to sell a troubled property at a discount – frequently are not counted in real estate agents’ sales data that is based on multiple listing services.

But foreclosure sales can have a big impact on real estate values and dominate the market in some neighborhoods.

First American CoreLogic estimates that nationwide foreclosure and short sale homes in January sold an average 35 percent less than non-distressed properties.

The discount rates are highest in markets what have a majority of distressed property sales.

First American CoreLogic gets its data from public records and information from mortgages.

Source: By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News