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According a recent Core Logic Report, Distressed sales—real estate-owned (REO) and short sales—accounted for 9.9 percent of total home sales nationally in May 2015, down 2.8 percentage points from May 2014. Distressed sales shares typically decrease month over month in May due to seasonal factors, and this distressed sales share was the lowest for the month of May since 2007 when it was 5 percent. Within the distressed category, REO sales accounted for 6.4 percent and short sales made up 3.5 percent of total home sales in May 2015. The REO sales share was the lowest since October 2007 when it was 6 percent. The short sales share fell below 4 percent in mid-2014 and has remained stable since then. The ongoing shift away from REO sales is a driver of improving home prices since bank-owned properties typically sell at a larger discount than short sales. There will always be some level of distress in the housing market, and by comparison, the pre-crisis share of distressed sales was traditionally about 2 percent. If the current year-over-year decrease in the distressed sales share continues, it would reach that “normal” 2-percent mark in mid-2018. Joining me today to discuss housing and mortgage trends Rick Sharga, Executive Vice President at Auction.com.  Since 2003, Rick has been an industry spokesman covering the US Housing Market, Mortgage Industry and Real Estate trends, Rick’s is a sought after speaker and has been featured on Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, FOX Business, MSNBC and other radio and news outlets. Auction.com is the largest nationwide online auctioneer of real estate