The number of foreclosure-related home sales in Idaho fell by about 57 percent in the third quarter of 2012 from with the third quarter of 2011, a market research firm says.

The portion of home sales in Idaho that involved foreclosures was lower during the third quarter than in at least six other Western states, including Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, RealtyTrac said.

The foreclosure homes that did sell in Idaho — 624 of them — sold for about three-fourths the price of nonforeclusure sales on average, RealtyTrac said.

The average foreclosure-related sales price in Idaho was $133,801, about 9 percent less than in the second quarter.

Idaho's foreclosure-related sales rose about half as fast as the average national rate, and Idaho's average sale price was about $44,000 lower than the national average. But Idaho homes sold somewhere during the foreclosure process offered slightly lower discounts. The U.S. average foreclosure-related sale was 32 percent less expensive than non-foreclosures.

Idaho also saw a drop in short sales — transactions that happen when a bank agrees to take less money in a sale than the owner still owes on the mortgage. Short sales in the third quarter were 94 percent less common than at the same time last year, making up 16 percent of all sales in the state. They were short by an average of $53,382.

Idaho's reduction in short sales was drastic in the third quarter compared with the nation as a whole. Short sales rose by 17 percent nationwide and made up about 22 percent of all home sales.