Report: Distressed homes now 40 percent of sales in King County – Puget Sound Business Journal

Two in five home sales in King County were short sales or sales of bank-owned properties during the first three months of 2012, according to Washington Property Solutions    . These distressed sales of single-family houses and condominiums were even higher in Snohomish and Pierce counties: 51 percent of sales in Snohomish County and 54 percent of sales in Pierce County.

Washington Property Solutions, a Bellevue-based short sale negotiating firm that is affiliated with Windermere Real Estate    , uses data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service in its reports. Short sales are sales in which the price paid is less than what the seller owes on the mortgage loan.

Two years ago, distressed sales accounted for 29 percent of sales in King County in the first quarter of 2010. By last year, distressed properties were 34 percent of residential sales in the first quarter. The biggest jump in distressed sales occurred in Seattle, where short sales and sales of bank-owned properties jumped from 19 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2011 to 33 percent of sales for the same period this year.

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via Report: Distressed homes now 40 percent of sales in King County – Puget Sound Business Journal.