If there is a silver lining to all this foreclosure business, this is it!  First time homebuyers are picking up these properties in distress and getting a fair shake at home ownership that many would say their seller counterparts weren’t privy to through predatory lending practices and abrupt economic shifts. Half of all transactions in the first quarter are attributed to first time buyers, and nearly half of those sales were distressed properties, helping to clean up the current state of the housing market one sale at a time.  Lending standards are now much safer protecting not only the lender themselves, but the consumer as well, and distressed properties are ripe for the picking.   One by one these homes are being sold and not only healing the economy and the housing market, but perpetuating the cycle of responsible homeownership at an affordable price for qualified buyers only!