US Bank-Owned Home Sales Reaches Record 5-Year Low

Sales of bank-owned homes fell to their lowest since the first quarter of 2008, according to the latest quarterly figures from a leading foreclosure tracker.

RealtyTrac said Thursday that 101,371 bank-owned properties were sold in the first quarter of 2013. Foreclosure-related sales in the past three months fell 18 percent from the end of 2012 and 22 percent from the same quarter last year.

“We expected foreclosure-related sales to be lower, given the downward trend in new foreclosure activity nationwide over the past two and a half years,” said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president, in a statement.

States with the most foreclosure-related sales included Georgia, Illinois and California. States where such sales accounted for less than a tenth of all home sales were Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Among the nation’s 20 most inhabited cities, Atlanta had the largest share of foreclosure sales this past quarter, with those sales comprising 38 percent of all home sales there.

Nationally, home sales in March and April enjoyed a significant uptick, according to official government agencies.