CoreLogic released its July National Foreclosure Report, which provides data on completed U.S. foreclosures and foreclosure inventory. According to CoreLogic, for the month of July 2014, there were 45,000 completed foreclosures nationally, down from 57,000 in July 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 21.2 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were down by 8.5 percent from the 49,000 reported in June 2014. 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.
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 5.1 million completed foreclosures across the country.
As of July 2014, approximately 640,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 976,000 in July 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 34.4 percent. The foreclosure inventory as of July 2014 made up 1.6 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.4 percent in July 2013. The foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from June 2014, representing 33 months of consecutive year-over-year declines.
“The stock of distressed debt continues to rapidly decline, especially in western states,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. “The number of seriously delinquent loans fell by more than 25 percent from the prior year in 10 states and seven of those states were in the west.”
“Based on current trends, the overall foreclosure inventory could trend down to as low as 500,000 homes by year-end which is very positive news for the housing market. The picture is considerably brighter in the non-judicial states which maintain consistently lower foreclosure stocks and, in general, lower levels of serious delinquency,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “In total, there are now 36 states with an inventory of foreclosed homes lower than the national rate of 1.7 percent.”
Highlights as of July 2014:
July represents 18 consecutive months of at least a 20-percent year-over-year decline in the national inventory of foreclosed homes.
All but two state posted double-digit declines in foreclosures year over year. The District of Columbia saw a 6.3 percent decline and the state of Wyoming saw a 14.6-percent increase in foreclosures year over year.
Thirty-one states show declines in year-over-year foreclosure inventory of greater than 30 percent, with Arizona and Utah experiencing declines at 49 percent each.
The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in July 2014 were: Florida (120,000), Michigan (44,000), Texas (38,000), California (32,000) and Georgia (31,000).These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
The four states and the District of Columbia with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in July 2014 were: South Dakota (73), the District of Columbia (110), North Dakota (307), West Virginia (498) and Wyoming (677).
The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: New Jersey (5.7 percent), Florida (4.8 percent), New York (4.3 percent), Hawaii (3.0 percent) and Maine (2.7 percent).
The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Nebraska (0.4 percent), Alaska (0.4 percent), Arizona (0.5 percent), Minnesota (0.5 percent) and North Dakota (0.5 percent).
