Foreclosure Inventory at Six-Year Low

The U.S.rnforeclosure inventory rate dropped below 2 percent in May for the first timernsince the summer of 2008.  The rate,rnwhich reflects the percentage of mortgaged homes in the country that are inrnsome stage of the foreclosure process, was 1.91 percent at the end of May.  This was a month-over-month decrease of 5.56rnpercent and a year-over-year change of -37.23 percent. In terms of numbersrnthere were 966,000 properties in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory in May,rndown 50,000 from April and a decrease of 559,000 in the past year.</p

Monthly foreclosurernstatistics for May were released today by Black Knight Financial Services.  The company’s complete Mortgage Monitor containing month-end performance statisticsrnderived from its loan level data base will be published on July 2. </p

The U.S. delinquencyrnrate, the percentage of mortgage loans which are 30 or more days past due butrnnot in foreclosure, was essentially unchanged from April down 18,000 units or 0.01rnpercent to 5.62 percent or 2.84 million units. rnThe number of delinquencies has dropped by 204,000 since last May arndecrease of 7.55 percent.  Of thoserndelinquent loans 1.17 million are 90 days past due but not in foreclosure, arndecrease of 18,000 since April and 166,000 from May 2013.</p

The total numberrnof distressed properties – either delinquent or in foreclosure – was 3.81rnmillion at the end of May.  This wasrn32,000 fewer than at the end of April and a 763,000 unit decrease from one yearrnearlier. Lenders initiated foreclosure on 86,300 properties in May, up 9.52rnpercent from April but a year-over-year change of -26.11 percent. </p

Black Knightrnsaid that foreclosure sales in May represented just under 2 percent of thernproperties that were 90 or more days delinquent.  This metric was 0.35 percent lower than inrnApril and 1.28 percent below the rate in May 2013.</p

Mississippi hadrnthe highest percentage of non-current mortgages at 13.75 percent followed byrnNew Jersey at 12.62 percent and Florida at 11.28 percent.  New York had the fourth largest percentage atrn10.91 and Louisiana at 10.66 percent was fifth.  </p

Even thoughrnFlorida has the nation’s third highest non-current loan rate it has shown therngreatest improvement over the previous 6-months as that rate declined by 22.53rnpercent.  Nevada was close behind as itsrnrate dropped by 22.26 percent.  Arizona,rnCalifornia, and Maryland also had significant declines of 18 to 19.5 percent.</p<pPrepayment rates, anrnindication of possible refinancing, increased by a slight 0.90 percent, anrnincrease of 3.45 percent from April.  Thernrate is down 55.68 percent from one year earlier.

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