WASHINGTON — With the highest percentage of distressed residential sales in the nation, Baltimore’s housing market is still struggling.
According to CoreLogic Inc., 19.5 percent of residential sales in the Baltimore region in April were distressed sales. That counts short sales and bank-owned properties. The national average is 9 percent.
Among urban areas, Chicago ranks just behind Baltimore for distressed sales, followed by Tampa and Orlando.
Denver had the smallest distressed sales share in April, at just 2.5 percent.
By state, Maryland also ranks the highest at 19.5 percent.
Virginia’s distressed sales rate was 10.6 percent in April, ranking it 14th highest. When compared to states, the District ranks No. 50, with a distressed sales rate of just 2.9 percent, ahead of only North Dakota’s 2.4 percent.
Nationwide, the share of distressed sales continues to shrink.
At its peak in January 2009, distressed sales totaled 32.45 percent of all sales nationally.
Based on current trends, CoreLogic expects the share of distressed sales in the housing market to reach a normal level of about 2 percent by mid-2017.
