Sales of two- and three-family homes in Massachusetts jumped by double-digit percentages in the first two quarters from a year earlier, according to The Warren Group.

There were 3,404 two- and three-family home sales through June, up about 20 percent from 2,847 last year. A significant number of those properties are being sold by a bank or some other type of financial firm.

As Ian Murphy reports in today’s Banker & Tradesman, bank-owned properties, accounted for nearly a third of the multifamily home sales from January through June.

But bank-owned properties, or REOs as they’re known in the industry, aren’t such a big share of single-family home sales in Massachusetts. Of the single-family homes sold in the first two quarters, only 6.5 percent were REOs — this despite the fact that the majority of foreclosures taking place statewide (60 percent) are of single-family homes.

Are REO multifamily homes moving more briskly because they’re attracting investors? And if so, does that mean investors are confident about this segment of the market? The reduced prices are certainly attractive.

The median selling price for an REO two-family home was only $100,000 in the first quarters. Meanwhile, the median price for the non-REO two-family home was $263,000.

Could it be that banks fearful of flooding the market with even more inventory are holding the single-family homes in their portfolios but dumping the multifamily homes a lot faster knowing that there are willing and able investors out there?

Let’s see what the coming months bring for this segment of the market…