CoreLogic released its February 2014 National Foreclosure Report with a supplement featuring quarterly shadow inventory data as of January 2014. There were 43,000 completed foreclosures in the United States in February 2014, down from 51,000 in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 15 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 13.1 percent from 50,000 in January 2014. National residential shadow inventory was 1.7 million homes as of January 2014 compared to 2.2 million in January 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 23 percent.
Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.9 million completed foreclosures across the country.
As of February 2014, approximately 752,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.2 million in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 35 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from January 2014. The foreclosure inventory as of February represented 1.9 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.9 percent in February 2013.
At the end of February 2014, there were 1.9 million mortgages, or 4.9 percent, in serious delinquency, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned (REO).
“Although there is good news that completed foreclosures are trending lower, the bigger news is the impressive decline in the foreclosure and shadow inventories,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Every state has had double-digit, year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory, which is reflected in the $70 billion decline in the shadow inventory.”
“The stock of seriously delinquent homes and the foreclosure rate are back to levels last seen in the final quarter of 2008,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The shadow inventory has also declined year over year for the past three years as the housing market continues to heal, including double-digit declines for the past 16 consecutive months.”
►The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending February 2014 were Florida (118,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (39,000), California (37,000) and Georgia (34,000).These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
►Four states and the District of Columbia experienced the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending February 2014: The District of Columbia (60), North Dakota (421), Hawaii (519), West Virginia (571) and Wyoming (705).
►The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes as of February 2014 were New Jersey (6.2 percent), Florida (6.0 percent), New York (4.7 percent), Maine (3.4 percent) and Connecticut (3.2 percent).
►The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes as of February 2014 were Wyoming (0.3 percent), Alaska (0.4 percent), North Dakota (0.5 percent), Nebraska (0.5 percent) and Colorado (0.6 percent).
►The value of shadow inventory was $254 billion as of January 2014, down from $324 billion a year ago and down from $289 billion six months ago.
►As of January 2014, year-over-year inventory of seriously delinquent homes decreased in all states by double digits. Twenty-four states experienced year-over-year declines in serious delinquency by at least 20 percent.
►Over the 12 months ending January 2014, shadow inventory has been decreasing at an average monthly rate of 41,000 units.
►As of January 2014, Florida, California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois carried 42 percent of all distressed properties in the country. Florida continues to account for 15 percent of the nation’s distressed properties.
