Dane County's Distressed Property Index increased in December to a record high for the fifth straight month, as houses in or near foreclosure continued taking an increasing slice of area home sales.

The index was 31.6 percent, up from 23.1 percent in December 2009.

December's rating also was higher than each of the past four months' values: 26 percent in August, 27.8 percent in September, 28.8 percent in October and 30.2 percent in November.

The index is produced from court filings and data from the South Central Wisconsin MLS at DaneCountyMarket.com. It charts the market prevalence of distressed properties as a proportion of overall monthly home sales.

The December reading suggests more than 31 percent of all home sales in the county involved distressed properties. The data have been tracked since January 2006, when the index was just 5 percent.

Index co-creator Dan Miller, a Madison real estate agent, said index values likely will remain above 25 percent for the next several months due to continuing high foreclosure filings balanced against relatively low numbers of home sales in Dane County.