So what’s behind the slide in residential sales?

Experts are attributing a recent dip in residential sales nationwide to a shortage of distressed properties on the market.

Sales of single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses have fallen for four consecutive months.

In February, sales dropped 0.2 percent from the month before, to an annual pace of 5,083,241 homes, according to data from real estate data analytics firm RealtyTrac cited by HousingWire. Short sales and distressed sales accounted for 16.9 percent of transactions — a sharp decline from the 19.1 percent figure for such sales in February 2013, according to the report.

“Supply and demand have reached a bit of a standoff in this uneven real estate recovery,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, told HousingWire. “The supply of distressed properties — which buyers and investors have come to rely on over the past few years — is evaporating quickly in most markets, but that dwindling supply is not being adequately replenished by non-distressed homeowners listing their homes or by new homes being built.”

In the commercial market, distressed properties were popular this fall among investors from China. Industry watchers said that was a reflection of a growing willingness to take on risk, as previously reported. Last year, real estate investors complained that distressed buying opportunities in Manhattan were scant. Indeed, the status of about three-quarters of distressed assets that date back to the financial crisis has been resolved. [HousingWire] — Angela Hunt