Movers looking towards foreclosed homes

House hunters looking to save on their move may be leaning towards buying distressed properties.

The number of foreclosed home sales has shot up drastically in the past few years, increasing 2,500 percent from 2005 to 2009, according to real estate website RealtyTrac. The housing downturn put many distressed properties on the market, and now buyers are scooping them up at discounted prices.

"First time homebuyers and investors continue to buy foreclosure properties in large numbers, and at substantial discounts," said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio. Buyers could purchase a distressed property for about 25 percent less than one that was not in the foreclosure process.

In the first three months of this year, about 31 percent of all home sales were on foreclosed properties, said the report. That translated to about 232,959 homes that were defaulted on, awaiting auction, or were repossessed by the bank. Saccacio doesn't see any immediate change to the trend, noting that the first half of 2010 saw record highs in repossessed properties.

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