by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2012 04:32:00 PM

Economist Tom Lawler sent me the table below with a one word discussion: "Wow".

CR Note: We've been tracking several distressed areas across the country, and a couple of clear patterns have developed:

1) There has been a shift from foreclosures to short sales. Foreclosures are down and short sales are up just about everywhere. For two of the cities below, short sales are three times foreclosures - and more than double in Phoenix. That is a huge change. A year ago, there were many more foreclosures than short sales.

2) The overall percent of distressed sales (combined foreclosures and short sales) are down year-over-year.

The three cities in the table below - Reno, Vegas, and Phoenix - were some of the hardest hit areas in the country. The decline in in distressed sales in Phoenix (from 64.1% in Sept 2011 to 39.9% in Sept 2012) is stunning. But we have to remember that 40% distressed is still extremely high.

	Short Sales Share		Foreclosure Sales Share		Total "Distressed" Share
	12-Sep	11-Sep	12-Sep	11-Sep	12-Sep	11-Sep
Las Vegas	44.8%	23.5%	13.6%	49.4%	58.4%	72.9%
Reno	41.0%	29.0%	12.0%	38.0%	53.0%	67.0%
Phoenix	27.0%	27.0%	12.9%	37.1%	39.9%	64.1%