Distressed properties, including short sales and REOs, accounted for 29 percent of all home sales in the United States in January, according to new data released Thursday by First American CoreLogic.

The company says it’s the highest level of distressed transactions since April 2009, and not too far off from the peak in January 2009 when distressed sales accounted for 32 percent of all sales transactions.

After declining through most of 2009, the rebound in distressed sales occurred due to increases in both the REO and short sales shares.

According to First American CoreLogic’s analysis, REO sales increased to 22 percent in January 2010, up from 19 percent in December but down from a year ago when they were 27 percent.

Short sales made up 8 percent of all sales in January, up from 7 percent in December and 5 percent a year ago.

Among the largest 25 markets, Riverside, California had the highest percentage of distressed sales in January (62 percent), followed closely by Las Vegas (59 percent) and Sacramento (58 percent).

The top REO market was Detroit where the bank-owned share of sales was 48 percent. San Diego’s short sale share was 19 percent in January, making it the highest ranked short sale market.

Although the top 10 markets for foreclosures are all located in Florida, only two Florida markets, Orlando and Cape Coral, made the top 10 distressed sale list. First American CoreLogic says this is probably because Florida is a judicial state where foreclosures process through the courts and take quite a bit longer than in California, Arizona, or Nevada, where non‐judicial foreclosures are the norm.

First American CoreLogic also reported that during the last year, there were 974,000 distressed sales: 740,000 were REOs and 234,000 were short sales. The company noted that distressed sales have a very strong influence on home price trends.

First American CoreLogic pointed out that home prices did not begin to decline until late 2007 in response to the rapid rise in the distressed sale share. The trough in average home prices in early 2009 occurred at exactly the same time that distressed sales had peaked, the company said.

In January, the average non-distressed sale price was $247,700, while the distressed average price was $161,600. First American CoreLogic says REOs averaged $141,900, compared to $215,300 for short sales.