Almost 31% of homes sold in Illinois in the first quarter of the year were in foreclosure or owned by a bank.

The statistics were released Thursday by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac. The company says the total number of foreclosures sold from January through March totaled 8,592, and the average sale price was $127,530.

The number of foreclosure sales was 22% higher than during the same period last year, and almost 12% higher than the last three months of 2011.

Nationally, foreclosure homes accounted for 26% of all residential sales in that same period.

The highest percentage of foreclosure sales were in Nevada, California and Georgia.

RealtyTrac says lenders also are approving more aggressively priced short sales.