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IRVINE, CA—Short sales and distressed sales—defined as those in foreclosure or bank owned—accounted for 16.9% of all US home sales in February, up from 16.1% of sales in January, but down from 19.1% of sales in February 2013, according to a report from RealtyTrac. Experts believe the reduction is in part due to the decreasing amount of distressed inventory in the pipeline.

As GlobeSt.com reported last week, US home sales volume decreased in February for the fourth consecutive month as distressed sales continued to dry up and institutional investors pulled back, according to RealtyTrac. The firm reports that US residential properties, including single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes, sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,083,241 in February, a 0.2% decrease from the previous month, but still up 7% from a year ago.

Short sales nationwide accounted for 5.7% of all sales, up from 5.5% in January, but down from 6.9% a year ago. Metro areas with the highest percentage of short sales included Las Vegas, Orlando, Tampa, Memphis and Miami. The percentage of short sales increased from a year ago in all of these metros.

According to Craig King, COO of Chase International in the Lake Tahoe and Reno markets, “The last half of 2013 did not have nearly as much buyer demand as we've been seeing so far in the first half of 2014. Last year, distressed property sales mostly disappeared from our marketplace. This year, we are finding that agents who have historically handled the largest numbers of short sales are reporting that they have moved away from short sales because there just aren't that many in our area.”

REO sales are also down from a year ago. RealtyTrac reports that sales of bank-owned properties nationwide accounted for 9.7% of sales, up from 9.3% in January but down from 11.1% a year ago. Metro areas with the highest percentage of bank-owned sales in February included Cleveland; Stockton, CA; Las Vegas; Detroit; and Jacksonville, FL. Steve Roney, CEO of Prudential Utah Real Estate, covering the Salt Lake City and Park City, UT, markets, says, “Bank-owned property sales in Salt Lake County account for 3.6% of homes sold and accounted for less than 1.55% of homes sold in the Park City resort areas of Summit County.”

Cash sales, on the other hand, seem to be on the other end of the spectrum. All-cash sales accounted for 43.3% of all US residential sales in February, up from a revised 42.1% in January and up from 20.2% in February 2013, RealtyTrac reports. February was the eighth consecutive month where cash sales accounted for 35% or more of all sales nationwide.

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