Foreclosures Continue Decline but Inventory Clearing Slowly

CoreLogic reported this morning that completed foreclosures inrnAugust were 24 percent lower than one year earlier and also down from July. Therernwere 57,000 foreclosures completed during August compared to 75,000 in August,rn2011 and 58,000 the previous month.  Augustrnis the fourth consecutive month that completed foreclosures declined but therernhave now been approximately 3.8 million homes lost to the process sincernSeptember 2008.</p

The national foreclosure inventory stands at approximately 1.3rnmillion homes according o CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report.  This is 3.2 percent of all mortgaged homes inrnthe country.  These numbers are essentiallyrnunchanged from July.  In August 2011rnthere were 1.4 million or 3.4 percent of mortgaged homes in the inventory whichrnindicates the number and share of homes in any stage of the foreclosurernprocess.   </p

“The continuing downward trend in foreclosures and a gradualrnclearing of the shadow inventory are important signals that the recovery inrnhousing is gaining traction,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO ofrnCoreLogic. “The reduction in foreclosure volumes is to some degree beingrnfacilitated by the rising popularity of alternative resolution methods, such asrnshort sales and loan modifications.”</p

“August marks the fourth month in a row there were fewer completed foreclosures,rnwhich is more evidence that the housing industry is finding its footing,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. rn”While we are seeing improvement on a national level, there remain higherrnconcentrations of foreclosures in some areas with five states accounting forrnnearly half of all completed foreclosures nationwide during the last year.”rn</p

As Fleming indicated, foreclosure activity is very uneven across thernstates with some experiencing problems that are comparatively negligible.  During the 12 months ended in AugustrnCalifornia had 110,000 completed foreclosures, Florida 92,000, and Michigan 62,000rnwhile South Dakota had 25.  Just 113 wererncompleted in the nation’s capitol over a 12 month period and Hawaii had 435. </p

The states with the largest percentage of mortgages homes in some stagernof foreclosure were Florida (11.0 percent), New Jersey (6.5 percent), and NewrnYork (5.2 percent).</p

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