Housing stat du jour

Here's more evidence that much of the home sales activity these days is happening under stress. Research firm RadarLogic finds that nearly a third of all June home sales in L.A. and Orange Counties were made by "motivated sellers," which are typically financial institutions, foreclosure service firms, and auction-related sellers. A year ago, it was only 5.1 percent. Even Phoenix is trailing L.A., at 29.5 percent. Actually, these stunning numbers are in line with Dataquick statistics showing that Socal foreclosures accounted for 41.1 percent of all June resales. That ranged from 18.9 percent in Orange County to 62.3 percent in Riverside County.