A new survey of foreclosure sales across the nation shows Wisconsin outpaced the national average for price breaks on distressed properties in the first quarter of this year.

Reinforcing the local consensus that it’s generally a buyer’s market out there, the first-of-its-kind report by RealtyTrac showed Wisconsin buyers on average saved about 32 percent on their purchases of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure -- in default, scheduled for auction or outright bank-owned -- from January through March.

The national average discount for the same time period was 27 percent, according to the report by RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure listing site based in Irvine, Calif.

Several other states -- typically those hit harder by the housing collapse than Wisconsin was -- showed deeper average discounts and much higher ratios of foreclosure sales to total sales, indicating more troubled housing markets in those states.

Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois posted the highest average foreclosure discount rates, the survey showed, at 39 percent below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process. (Wisconsin’s discount rate, as noted above, was 32 percent).

And Nevada, California and Arizona had far and away the highest ratios of foreclosure sales, at 64 percent, 51 percent and 50 percent, respectively, of total sales in those markets through March. Wisconsin’s foreclosure-related sales made up 19 percent of total sales in the first quarter.

For Wisconsin, RealtyTrac also found a total of 1,767 foreclosure-related sales in the first quarter, at an average price of $109,231. The average discount for bank-owned properties in the state was 38 percent, while the average pre-foreclosure savings -- usually received through a short sale -- was nearly 20 percent.

Nationwide, distressed properties accounted for 31 percent of total residential sales in the first quarter, with nearly 233,000 foreclosure-related homes sold at an average price of $171,971.

You can see the full report, including a state-by-state breakdown of foreclosure sales and discounts, a glossary of terms, the report’s methodology and some highlights for selected states, here.

The latest available figures for foreclosures in Dane County are available in this State Journal story from June.

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