Institutional buyers purchased 25rnpercent of properties sold in Georgia and Nevada.  These investors were also active in Missouri withrna 17 percent share, Arizona (16 percent), Illinois and Texas (14 percent and 13rnpercent respectively). </p

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“The housing market continues tornskew in favor of investors, particularly deep-pocketed institutional investors,rnand other buyers paying with cash,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president atrnRealtyTrac. “While the institutional investors are pulling back their purchasesrnin many of the higher-priced markets – places like San Francisco, Washington,rnD.C., New York, Seattle and Sacramento – they are continuing to ramp uprnpurchases in markets where median prices are still below $200,000 – places likernJacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, St. Louis and Dallas. The availability ofrndistressed inventory also makes a difference. For example, institutionalrninvestor purchases have rebounded in Las Vegas corresponding to a recentrnrebound in foreclosure activity there.</p

RealtyTrac’s U.S. Residentialrn& Foreclosure Sales Report estimates that home sales increased nationally by 2 percent in September.  Sales of single family homes, condominiums,rnand townhomes and including both market sales and sales of distressedrnproperties reached an estimated annualized rate of 5,673,249 units inrnSeptember, 14 percent higher than in September 2012. </p

Annualized sales volume increasedrnfrom the previous month in 34 out of the 38 states tracked in the report andrnwas up from a year ago in 35 states. Notable exceptions where annualized salesrnvolume decreased from a year ago were California (-15 percent), Arizona (-11rnpercent), and Nevada (-5 percent).</p

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Distressed properties accounted forrn25 percent of residential sales in September, an increase of 2 percentagernpoints from August and 7 points from a year earlier.  Fourteen percent of all sales were short salesrnand 10 percent were sales of bank-owned real estate.  The two categories each had a 9 percent sharernin August.</p

Several states had much higherrnpercentages of short sales than the national average including Nevada (32rnpercent), Florida (30 percent), Ohio (26 percent), Maryland (22 percent), andrnTennessee (21 percent).  States with thernhighest percentage of ORE to total residential sales were Nevada (19 percent),rnOhio (18 percent) followed by Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, and Georgia with ORErnshares of 14 to 16 percent. </p

“Distressed sales remainrnpersistently high, particularly short sales,” Blomquist added. “Markets withrnthe biggest increases in short sales tend to be those where either foreclosurernstarts or scheduled foreclosure auctions have rebounded in the last 18 months -rntranslating into more motivated short sellers – or those with a still-highrnpercentage of underwater homeowners with negative equity.”</p

The median sales price ofrnresidential properties, both distressed and non-distressed was $174,000, up 1rnpercent from August and 6 percent from a $164,500 median price in Septemberrn2012.  Distressed properties had a medianrnof $112,000, 41 percent lower than the median for non-distressed properties atrn$189,000.  States with the largestrnincreases in median prices from September 2012 were California (30 percent),rnMichigan (25 percent), Nevada (23 percent), Georgia (20 percent), and Arizona (20rnpercent).</p

All-cash purchases represented 49rnpercent of all residential sales in September, up from a revised 40 percent inrnAugust and up from 30 percent in September 2012. </p

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