Still, the buyer is paying a premium not to have to deal with the risks involved in buying a foreclosed home or a short sale, which can take several months to close.
So, should distressed homes sales be compared with other homes? Is one inherently worth more than the other?
A new analysis of foreclosure and non-foreclosure sales by Zillow.com found that even when most of the market is made up of bank-owned homes, non-foreclosures sell for as much as 30% more. Another study by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies came up with a similar conclusion.
In Las Vegas, which has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, the median sale price for bank-owned homes sold in September was about 23% less than other types of properties, according to the Zillow study.
"There are two markets, two very distinct markets," said Zillow economist Stan Humphries.
That doesn't mean foreclosures don't weigh down the value of nearby homes, although there's loud disagreement on how much.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies examined home sales over 20 years in Massachusetts and found that a foreclosure within less than 100 yards of a home lowers the price of that home by 1%.
So it appears that in neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates, values for all homes are being pulled lower than in areas where there are few or none. That means you can live in one area of Las Vegas and values can be down twice as much as they are in another neighborhood just a few miles away.
When it comes to appraisals, that leaves a lot of room for interpretation.