Almost a quarter of homes sold in the final three months of last year had been taken in foreclosures, but that is better than previous quarters and the previous year, according to Standard & Poor's.

The chairman of the company's Indices Committee, David Blitzer, said the number for October, November and December was down 8% from the third quarter and down 2% from the 2010 fourth quarter.

"For all of 2011, foreclosure and bank-owned sales totaled 907,100, down 2% from 2010 and representing 23% of the 2011 total activity," Blitzer said in the company's HousingViews blog.

The prices for foreclosed homes were 29% under conventional sales, but that was better than a 35% discount the year before, Blitzer said.