CoreLogic: 30,000 Foreclosures in October; Inventory Down 32%

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., reported 30,000 completed foreclosures by lenders and servicer in October, down by 25 percent from a year ago and down by 75 percent from the Sept. 2010 peak.

The company’s National Foreclosure Report also noted the national foreclosure inventory fell to 328,000 in October, representing 0.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage. This is down by 31.5 percent from a year ago.

Foreclosures fell in October from 41,000 in September, a 27.5 percent drop. It compares to 40,000 a year ago and 118,287 in September 2010. As a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 22,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, CoreLogic reported 6.5 million completed foreclosures nationally; since homeownership rates peaked in second quarter 2004, CoreLogic estimated 8.5 million homes lost to foreclosure.

CoreLogic also reported mortgages in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due including loans in foreclosure or REO) declined by 24.8 percent from a year ago, with 1 million mortgages, or 2.5 percent, in serious delinquency, the lowest level since August 2007. The decline was geographically broad with decreases in serious delinquency in 47 states and the District of Columbia.

“Loan performance varies by the health of the local economy and housing market. Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming, three states with energy-related job loss, experienced a rise in serious delinquency rates while all other states had a decline,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Although there were large declines in foreclosure rates in New York and New Jersey, both states experienced the highest serious delinquency rates in the nation, reflecting lagging home values in most neighborhoods and an unemployment rate above the national average.”

Other key metrics:
–States with the highest number of completed foreclosures in the 12 months ending in October were Florida (51,000), Michigan (29,000), Texas (26,000), Ohio (23,000) and Georgia (20,000).These five states accounted for 36 percent of completed foreclosures nationally.
–States with the lowest number of completed foreclosures in the 12 months ending in October were the District of Columbia (212), North Dakota (278), West Virginia (407), Alaska (622) and Montana (660).
–States with the highest foreclosure inventory rate in October were New Jersey (2.8 percent), New York (2.7 percent), Maine (1.7 percent), Hawaii (1.7 percent) and the District of Columbia (1.6 percent).
–States with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate in October were Colorado (0.3 percent), Minnesota (0.3 percent), Arizona (0.3 percent), Utah (0.3 percent) and Michigan (0.3 percent).

“Housing and labor markets improved over the past year, setting the stage for further declines in foreclosure rates across much of the nation,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.