Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 9.7 percent on a year-over-year basis in January and economists expect home prices to increase 6 percent in the year ahead, thanks to increased purchase demand and a steadily improving economy, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics firm CoreLogic.
According to the firm’s March MarketPulse report, distressed sales accounted for 24 percent of all home sales nationwide in January, and REO sales accounted for 13 percent of all sales.
Home prices in Massachusetts, including distressed sales, increased 5 percent year-over-year, the firm reported, and distressed sales accounted for 10.6 percent of home sales.
REO properties also fell 30 percent during 2012, triggering a rebound in home prices and renewed optimism in the housing market, according to CoreLogic. But that decline has been uneven, with the South and Southwestern markets benefitting from what CoreLogic called "massive declines," while the Midwestern and Northeastern markets still struggled. Institutional investors accelerated REO purchases in select markets in 2012, most notably in Las Vegas, Atlanta and Phoenix, while individual investor activity was responsible for declines in REO inventory in California markets, the firm said.
According to the MarketPulse report, the time it takes for a distressed property to pass through the entire disposition timeline has risen across all states in the last 10 years from an average of seven months to 24 months in non-judicial states and 35 months in judicial states.
