WASHINGTON – Distressed sales accounted for 45 percent of homes sold in the United States in the last three months of 2008, dropping the national single-family home median price to $180,100, according to data released last week by the National Association of Realtors.

The median price was a 12.4 percent decrease from the same 2007 quarter.

“Distressed home sales have risen from about 38 percent of transactions in the third quarter, meaning people are responding to discounted prices and are slowly absorbing the excess inventory. Buyers clearly see value in today’s pricing,” NAR President Charles McMillan said in announcing the statistics.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said home prices might “begin to stabilize in many metro areas later this year as supply and demand begin to return to balance, which would greatly benefit the overall economy.”

The National Association of Realtors is the nation’s largest trade association, with more than 1.3 million members in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate. Additional information is available at www.realtor.org.