Foreclosure Inventory Declining Quickly; Judicial States Still Skewing Data

Completed foreclosures in July were downrn25 percent from a year earlier CoreLogic said today.  There were 49,000 completed foreclosuresrnduring the month compared to 53,000 in June, a decrease of 8.6 percent, andrn65,000 in July 2012.  For context,rnCoreLogic pointed to its statistics for pre-crisis completed foreclosuresrnwhich, between 2000 and 2006 averaged 21,000 per month.  The July foreclosures bring the number ofrncompleted foreclosures across the country to about 4.5 million since thernfinancial crisis began in 2008.  </p

The foreclosure inventory at the endrnof July was at approximately 949,000 homes down from 1.4 million in Julyrn2012.  This is a decrease of nearlyrnone-third.  Month-over-month therninventory shrunk by 4.4 percent.  Thernforeclosure inventory represented 2.4 percent of all mortgaged homes in thernU.S., down from 3.4 percent one year earlier.</p

“As the housing marketrncontinues to recover, the foreclosure inventory is declining quickly, down byrn32 percent from a year ago,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist forrnCoreLogic. “Continued strength in the housing market will contribute tornour outlook for ongoing improvement in the stock of distressed assets throughrnthe end of this year.”</p

“Completed foreclosures andrndelinquency rates continued their rapid descent in July. Every state posted arnyear-over-year decline in foreclosures and serious delinquencies fell to thernlowest level since December 2008,” said Anand Nallathambi, president andrnCEO of CoreLogic. “Not surprisingly, non-judicial states have come thernfarthest the fastest in reducing shadow inventory and lowering delinquencyrnrates.”</p

Nonetheless the foreclosure inventoriesrnin judicial process states continue to skew national figures.  Of the 24 states with judicial foreclosuresrn12 have inventories higher than the national average of 2.4 percent.  Florida at 8.1 percent and New Jersey and NewrnYork (5.9 percent and 4.7 percent) have the highest rates. Connecticut andrnMaine had a 4 percent rate.   Of the 26 states and the District of Columbiarnwhich employ a non-judicial process only two (Nevada, 3.7 percent and Oregon,rn2.7 percent) have rates above the national average.</p

Almost half of the completed foreclosures</bin the 12 months ended in July took place in five states; Florida (110,000), Californiarn(65,000), Michigan (61,000), Texas (45,000) and Georgia (41,000). </p