Distressed Sales Fall Under 25 Percent in California

In April 2012 distressed propertiesrnaccounted for 45.8 percent of home sales in California the states Associationrnof Realtors® said Wednesday, but last month that share dropped to 24.4 percentrnand was down 3.5 points compared to March. rnThere was of course a corresponding rise in the share of equityrnsales.  The California Association ofrnRealtors (C.A.R.) said that the share of short sales declined from 21.1 percentrna year earlier to 14.8 percent as rising prices lifted more homeowners out of arnnegative equity position.  Sales of bankrnowned real estate (REO) dropped into single digits (9.2 percent) for the firstrntime in more than five years.</p

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The decline in distressed sales wasrnevident throughout the state with at least seven of the state’s 58 counties registeringrndistressed sales in the single or low double digits.  Distressed sales did increase from March inrnseven of the 36 counties for which the Association provided information, but mostrnincreases were only one or two percentage points.  </p

Inventories remained tight.  There was an unsold inventory of REO whichrnwas the equivalent of a 1.8 month supply in March and that dropped to 1.7rnmonths in April.  The inventory of shortrnsales was unchanged at 2.7 months and the index for equity sales was 2.9 monthsrncompared to 3.0 months in the prior month. </p

C.A.R.’s Pending Home Sales Indexrn(PHSI) decreased 3.7 percent from a revised 126.5 in March to 121.7 inrnApril, based on signed contracts.  Pending sales were down 3.9 percentrnfrom the 126.7 index recorded in April 2012.  Pending home sales arernforward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing informationrnon the future direction of the market.</p

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