Foreclosures popular for US property buyers

Just under a quarter of all US house sales are for a foreclosed property, new figures have revealed.

RealtyTrac has said that 24 per cent of all purchases in the country during the second quarter of the year were for a bank-owned home, up three per cent on the previous three months.

The average sale price was more than 26 per cent below the price of properties not in the foreclosure process, those looking for bargain real estate in the US may be interested to know.

However, there are signs that the market in the country is beginning to recover.

"While foreclosure sales increased in the second quarter, non-foreclosure sales increased even more, spurred on by the homebuyer tax credit that expired during the quarter," said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

"That had the net effect of lowering foreclosure sales as a percentage of total sales during the quarter, but that may be a temporary dip as the removal of the tax credit could drive more buyers back to discounted short sales and bank-owned homes."

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