DAYTON — One out of every five homes sold in the metro region in the first quarter were in some stage of foreclosure or bank-owned, RealtyTrac said Thursday.

The foreclosure sales report from RealtyTrac said 460 residential third-party sales occurred in the Dayton area during the first part of the year. These homes sold for $58,221 on average.

That was up from the fourth quarter of 2011 when foreclosure sales were almost 16 percent of all sales. But it was down from the same quarter a year ago, when foreclosure sales made up nearly 25 percent of all home sales.

Short sales and foreclosure sales comprised 22 percent of all home sales in Ohio the first quarter and 26 percent of all sales across the U.S., according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Short sales nationally have reached a three-year high. A short sale is when the proceeds from selling a property fall short of the balance of debts against the property and the lender accepts less than the amount owed on the debt.

“Lenders are approving more aggressively priced short sales, which in turn is resulting in more successful short sale transactions,” said Brandon Moore, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a statement with company’s release.