According to the “Distressed Sales Activity” report from First American CoreLogic, 
distressed home sales are on the rise again, accounting for an amazing 29% of all home sales in the month of January.
Nearly 1 Million distressed sales occurred last year, which includes short sales and real estate owned (REO) property.
Distressed property sales are at their highest levels since April of 2009.
Expect to see this trend to continue – there is still a lot of pent-up housing inventory in the system, banks are finally starting to liquidate their REO portfolios faster, and there is a strong focus on completing short sales quicker.
Real estate agents and investors should keep their eyes on the distressed property numbers, this will be a very large part of the market for the next few years!