The number of foreclosures is up nationwide, but sales prices...

The number of foreclosures is up nationwide, but sales prices on such homes in Nassau and Suffolk are up since a year ago. (September 2010) Credit: Getty Images

Home sale prices have been rising on properties taken back by banks or in the process of being foreclosed,  RealtyTrac said in its debut report on foreclosure-related sales, adding that the number of these deals was higher in Suffolk than in Nassau for the second quarter.

Troubled sales made up about 17 percent of all home closings in Suffolk and 11 percent in Nassau for the quarter. That reflected 465 homes in Suffolk, a higher share of all sales compared with a year ago, the report said. Nassau had 270 such sales, a lower share of all sales compared to a year ago, according to the quarterly data released Thursday.

A breakdown of home sale data is key to those in the housing market and those worried about property values. Many blame falling property values on the foreclosure crisis and want clues on where the market is going. Troubled properties have been selling for less, also dragging down the listing prices of sellers without mortgage woes.

On Long Island in the past year, as the average sale price of troubled properties went up, the price gap between foreclosure-related properties and non-foreclosure homes has shrunk a little, figures show.

In Suffolk, for example, the average closing price for foreclosure-related properties was $273,015 during the second quarter, 39 percent lower than the average closing price for non-foreclosure sales. A year ago, the average closing price was $244,945, 41 percent lower than the price for non-foreclosure homes, the report said.

David Guzzetta, a Port Jefferson-based foreclosure broker, said he's seeing prices of bank-owned homes remain stable over the past year. The supply of foreclosures for sale and properties with troubled homeowners has gone down since the federal government started launching rescue programs more than a year ago, he said.

"The number of houses being foreclosed on is growing," said Guzzetta. "But the number of houses that are making it through to the market is inconsistent. I think right now banks are bursting at the seams with properties.

"The bottleneck should help values because you're not putting so many properties out at one time." But he said some of those properties sell for less because they're in bad condition.

At the nonprofit Long Island Housing Partnership, which buys and rehabs foreclosures for affordable housing, the general rise in price is no surprise.

A year ago, only "risk takers" were buying, because of fear about the economy, said nonprofit vice president James Britz.

"Now with the great rates out there and the loan programs, people are more willing to buy those," he said.

Nationwide, bank-repossessed homes and properties in some stage of foreclosure represented 24 percent of all sales, down from 29 percent a year ago.

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