September 29 2010 (Chris Moore)

Nearly one in four homes sold in the United States in the second quarter of this was a foreclosed home. Foreclosed homes accounted for 24 percent of all second-quarter sales, at an average price discount of more than 26 percent compared with homes not in the foreclosure process.

At that rate, it is estimated that it would take up to three years to sell through the current amount of distressed homes currently on the market.

The share of foreclosure sales fell from the first quarter when nearly one in three sales was a foreclosed house sold at an average 27 percent discount, RealtyTrac said in the report released on Thursday.

“In a normal market you’re looking at foreclosure sales accounting for low single-digit percentages, probably less than 5 percent of all sales,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice preside at RealtyTrac.. For the next few years, “it’s probably going to be somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of all sales.”

Distressed homes, or ones in foreclosure or short sales, rose to 34 percent of all existing houses sold in August from 32 percent in July and 31 percent a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said last week

Nevada, Arizona, California, among the biggest boom-and-bust states, had the highest share of foreclosure sales from April to June. About 56 percent of all Nevada sales, 47 percent in Arizona and 43 percent in California were foreclosed homes.

At least one-quarter of all sales were foreclosed homes in Rhode Island (37 percent), Massachusetts (35 percent), Florida (34 percent), Michigan (33 percent), Georgia (27 percent), Idaho (27 percent), and Oregon (25 percent).

Foreclosure price discounts versus the average price on homes not in the process were biggest in Ohio, Kentucky and California, with a 43 average discount in Ohio. Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, and the District of Columbia had average foreclosure discounts of at least 35 percent.