Foreclosure sales in Minnesota down 40 percent from last year

Foreclosure sales in Minnesota dropped in the third quarter more sharply than the national average.

Real estate research firm Realtytrac found that in Minnesota, foreclosure sales were down about 40 percent over the same time period a year ago, and down about 26 percent from the second quarter of this year.

The report found the average sales price of properties in some stage of foreclosure was more than 32 percent below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process.

Daren Blomquist from Realtytrac said foreclosures accounted for about 25 percent of all residential sales.

"We are seeing in the third quarter basically what the true market is like without the artificial stimulus of the tax credit," Blomquist said. "If you look at overall sales numbers from other sources, overall sales are down as well quite a bit."

Blomquist said that he believes the sharp drop is largely because of the homebuyer tax credit that basically pulled forward a lot of demand to the second quarter.

Realtytrac found that foreclosure sales volume was down overall by about 31 percent over the third quarter of 2009.