Miami ranks second for distressed sales in May

Miami had the second most distressed sales in the nation during May, though rates both locally and nationally continue to decline.

Out of all the metropolitan area’s home sales during May, a total of 23.3 percent were distressed. That rate has been falling by fractions of a percentage point each month, this time by 0.5 percent from April. CoreLogic, an analytics company, said in a report that the decrease of distressed sales in May is typically due to seasonal factors.

Distressed sales are categorized as properties either sold by a lender, or when a sale doesn’t cover the balance of debt against a property.

Nationally, the housing market saw 9.9 percent of its home sales made up of distressed properties. Out of that figure, 6.4 percent were owned by lenders, while 3.5 percent were short sales — those transactions that don’t cover the balance of debt.

The country saw a decrease of 2.8 percent in these sales year-over-year, and 1.7 percent month-to-month.

The CoreLogic report said distressed sales were at their peak in January 2009, when a total of 32.4 percent of home sales in the country were distressed properties. That number has fallen considerably since then.

Miami was only beat out by the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a distressed sales share of 24.6 percent. The city has ranked first for at least three months, during which it has stayed within 0.1 percent of that 24.6 percent rate.

The country’s most drastic change was in San Bernadino, California, which had distressed properties make up 76.3 percent of all its home sales during February 2009. Only 12.3 percent of the area’s sales were distressed in May of this year.