Roughly 20 percent of all U.S. home sales in March were “short sales” according to a real estate industry survey conducted by Washington-based Campbell Communications. According to their research, two-thirds of short sales are initiated by homeowners and one-third are launched by mortgage lenders (as a foreclosure alternative).

In a typical home transaction the seller gets final say on which buyer gets the home, but in a short sale the lender weighs in on that decision, since it’s the lender who won’t recoup 100 percent of the seller’s mortgage balance as in a “normal” home transaction.

Buying a Short Sale Can Be A Time-Consuming Process

It is important to know where the seller is in terms of discussions with the lender. The lender can drag the short-sale process on for a very long time. An offer may take anywhere from four to six weeks to get a response. But if the buyer is in the market to purchase a short-sale, then patience is going to be vital in order to pick up that good deal.

There is a lot of media attention on foreclosures these days.  It seems everywhere you turn the radio, TV and newspapers have increasingly more negative news.

Although there are many markets offering great real estate investment opportunities, it is true that there is a significant increase in foreclosures, and nationally the housing market has slowed down significantly.

February foreclosure activity was down 4 percent from the previous month but still up 57 percent from February 2007 according to the latest RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.  That equated to 1 out of every 557 households having a foreclosure filing of any sort.  Nevada, California, and Florida posted the top state foreclosure rates, with California and Florida metro areas accounted for nine of the top 10 metro foreclosure rates in February.

I've put together a short list of links if you are interested in more information on the current state of foreclosures:

• RealtyTrac
• Business Week
• Housing Predictor