RealtyTrac: December Sale Of U.S. Residential Properties Up 10% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for housing data, Thursday announced that U.S. residential properties, including single family homes, condominiums and townhomes, sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,167,255 in December, a 10 percent increase from December 2012, and a less than 1 percent increase sequentially.

In its December and Year-End 2013 U.S. Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report, the agency showed that short sales and foreclosure sales accounted for 16 percent of all U.S. residential sales in 2013, higher than 14.5 percent of all sales in 2012. This was despite declining short sales late in year.

The national median sales price of U.S. residential properties, including both distressed and non-distressed sales, was $168,391 in December, up 2 percent from last year.

The median price of a distressed residential property, in foreclosure or bank-owned, was 38 percent below the median price for a non-distressed residential property.

Annualized sales volume declined from last year in 18 of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas and was down in five states.

Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said, "It may surprise some to see distressed sales rising in 2013 given that foreclosure starts dropped to a seven-year low for the year. And while short sales did trend lower in the second half of the year, there are still more than 1.2 million properties in the foreclosure process or bank-owned, providing a sizable pool of inventory that the housing market is in the process of absorbing. Meanwhile, non-distressed sellers have not listed their homes for sale in droves, helping to keep the distressed share of sales at a stubbornly high level."