Foreclosure Inventory Hits Eight-Year Low

The national foreclosure inventory declined by 23.8 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 22.6 percent in December 2015 on a year-over-year measurement, according to new data released by CoreLogic. December 2015 marked the lowest foreclosure inventory rate for any month since November 2007.

Furthermore, the number of completed foreclosures nationwide decreased year-over-year from 41,000 in December 2014 to 32,000 in December 2015. CoreLogic stated that the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 433,000, or 1.1 percent, of all homes with a mortgage in December 2015, down from 568,000 homes, or 1.5 percent, in December 2014.

Also, the number of mortgages in serious delinquency—defined as 90 days or more past due—fell by 23.3 percent from December 2014 to December 2015, with 1.2 million mortgages, or 3.2 percent, in this category. This is the lowest serious delinquency rate since November 2007.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in December 2015—Florida (79,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (30,000), Ohio (24,000) and Georgia (24,000)—accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

However, Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, warned that the new data came with a downside.

“While this is positive for the housing market overall, it also drives a decline in the inventory of affordable for-sale homes,” Nallathambi said. “The lack of housing stock, particularly affordable inventory, is a growing issue and will limit a full housing recovery in the short to medium term.”