CoreLogic: Foreclosure Inventory Down 24.3% From Year Ago

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said despite a fiscal year-end surge in foreclosures, the national foreclosure inventory of single-family homes continued to fall from historically high levels.

The company’s September National Foreclosure Report said on a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased by 49.5 percent to 55,000 from 37,000 reported in August. CoreLogic attributed the surge in foreclosures in part to an annual public auctioning of thousands of tax-foreclosed properties in Wayne County, Mich., of which Detroit is the county seat. Before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

Despite the monthly surge, CoreLogic said the foreclosure inventory declined by 24.3 percent in September from a year ago, while completed foreclosures declined by 17.6 percent. The number of foreclosures nationwide decreased year over year from 67,000 in September 2014 to 55,000 in September, a decrease of 52.8 percent from the peak of 117,438 in September 2010. CoreLogic said since the financial crisis began in September 2008, 6 million completed foreclosures have taken place; since homeownership rates peaked in second quarter 2004, 8 million homes were reported lost to foreclosure.

The report said the national foreclosure inventory included 470,000, or 1.2 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 621,000 homes, or 1.6 percent, a year ago. Mortgages in serious delinquency declined by 21.2 percent from a year ago with 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.4 percent, in this category. This is the lowest serious delinquency rate since December 2007. The foreclosure rate (defined as the share of all loans in the foreclosure process) was at 1.2 percent as of September, back to December 2007 levels. 

“The largest improvements in the foreclosure inventory continue to be in judicial states on the East Coast such as Florida and New Jersey,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic. “While the overwhelming majority of states are experiencing declines in their foreclosure rates, four states experienced small increases compared with a year ago.”

Other highlights:

–States with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in September were Florida (91,000), Michigan (45,000), Texas (32,000), Georgia (26,000) and California (26,000). These states accounted for nearly half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

–States with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in September were District of Columbia (69), North Dakota (310), Wyoming (498), West Virginia (593) and Hawaii (690).

–States with the highest foreclosure inventory rate in September were New Jersey (4.6 percent), New York (3.7 percent), Florida (2.6 percent), Hawaii (2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.4 percent).

–States with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate in September were Alaska (0.3 percent), Minnesota (0.4 percent), Nebraska (0.4 percent), Arizona (0.4 percent) and North Dakota (0.4 percent).

The Mortgage Bankers Association will release its Third Quarter National Delinquency Survey on Tuesday, Nov. 17.