Bargain Hunters Snapped Up More Foreclosed Homes in December

Existing home sales unexpectedly showed a notable increase in the month of December, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors, with some buyers taking advantage of lower home prices.

The report showed that sales of existing homes rose 6.5% in December to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.74 million. The monthly increase was partly due to strong sales growth in the West, where prices have fallen more than 30%, existing home sales jumped 13.6 percent. Existinghome sales in the South and the Midwest rose 7.4 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively, while sales in the Northeast slipped 1.4 percent.

About 45% of the transactions in December were considered distressed sales, either a short sale or a home in foreclosure.

The continued decline of US housing prices has certainly caught the attention of the international buyer group. Attracted by the real estate plunge on the other side of the globe, for example, Chinese homebuyers are gearing up for visits to the United States to buy bargain priced homes. Their focus appears to be on cities with huge ethnic Chinese populations including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York.

In 2008, foreign buyers purchased properties in every state (and the District of Columbia). Several states had a more significant share of foreign home purchases than did others. The top four states for completed international residential transactions were Florida, California, Arizona and Texas. New York, Washington and Nevada were also popular.