RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist says foreclosures accounted for nearly half of all the homes that sold in California between October and December.

"Foreclosures represented 43% of all sales in the fourth quarter which is the second highest of any state behind Nevada."

In fact, for all of 2011, 43% of the homes sold in California were foreclosures or bank-owned. And that is continuing to weigh down the housing market.

Statewide, the average sales price of a foreclosure home in the fourth quarter was $234,000, down about $15,000 from the same period the year before.

"When you see the sales price of these foreclosures go down that means that you're probably going to see overall home sales prices go down as well."

The new data also show pre-foreclosure, or short-sales, in California 23% on a year-over-year basis in 2011.