During the mortgage crisis, foreclosed homes were selling, on average, for a 25 percent discount compared to original market values. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the average foreclosure discount dropped to 12.2 percent, according to the latest data from FNC’s Foreclosure Market report.

The median sales price of foreclosures is $93,000; the median price of non-distressed home is $183,000, FNC reports.

"The fact that we are seeing a combination of rising home prices and a bottoming out of foreclosure prices is a very good sign the housing recovery is taking hold," says  Yangling Mayer, FNC senior research economist. "This is the very first time in the long housing recession that the two are happening at the same time."