CoreLogic: Foreclosure Inventory Hits 8-Year Low

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said the U.S. foreclosure inventory declined by 21.8 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 18.8 percent compared to a year ago.  

The company’s November National Foreclosure Report said completed foreclosures nationwide decreased year over year to 33,000 in November from 41,000 a year ago. Completed foreclosures in November fell by 71.6 percent from their peak, 117,657, in September 2010.  

The report said the national foreclosure inventory included 448,000, or 1.2 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared to 573,000 homes, or 1.5 percent, a year ago, which CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft called a “remarkable improvement.” The November foreclosure inventory rate is the lowest for any month since November 2007.   

CoreLogic said since the financial crisis began in September 2008, six million completed foreclosures have taken place; since homeownership rates peaked in second quarter 2004, nearly eight million homes were lost to foreclosure.  

CoreLogic also reported the number of mortgages in serious delinquency declined by 21.7 percent from a year ago, with 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.3 percent, in this category. The November serious delinquency rate is the lowest since December 2007.  

Other report highlights:  

–On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased by 10.9 percent to 33,000 in November from 38,000 reported a year ago. As a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

–States with the highest completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November were Florida (83,000), Michigan (51,000), Texas (29,000), California (24,000) and Georgia (24,000). These states accounted for nearly half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

–States with the lowest completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November: the District of Columbia (78), North Dakota (225), Wyoming (543), West Virginia (565) and Hawaii (686).

–States with the highest foreclosure inventory rate in November: New Jersey (4.4 percent), New York (3.5 percent), Hawaii (2.5 percent), Florida (2.4 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.4 percent).

–States with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate in November 2015 were Alaska (0.3 percent), Minnesota (0.3 percent), Arizona (0.4 percent), Colorado (0.4 percent) and Utah (0.4 percent).  

“While there are still pockets of areas with high foreclosure activity, 30 states have foreclosure rates below the national average, which is evidence of the solid improvement,” Nothaft said.  

“Tight post-crash underwriting standards coupled with much improved economic and housing market fundamentals have combined to push new mortgage delinquencies to 15-year-lows,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Although judicial states will likely continue to lag, given current trends, it is reasonable to expect a continued and significant drop in the rate of serious delinquencies and foreclosure starts in 2016.”