NEW YORK—Foreclosure sales in New York dropped by 18.6 percent in 2012, down from 2011, and by 42 percent, down from 2010, according to a year-end report by RealtyTrac, a website featuring foreclosure properties. Meanwhile, the average price of a foreclosed property increased by 9.4 percent year over year.
The report found that New York was the fourth state nationwide in the average amount shorted in non-foreclosure short sales. In a non-foreclosure short sale, a bank approves the sale of a property before the foreclosure proceedings initiate. The property is then sold for less than the mortgage value. In New York, the average short sale amount is $111,754. Short sales accounted for 13 percent of total residential sales in New York in 2012.
