“The shadow of foreclosure andrndistress continues to fade, with the annualized sum of completed foreclosuresrnhaving declined for 17 straight months,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chiefrneconomist for CoreLogic. “Six states have year-over-year declines in thernforeclosure inventory of more than 40 percent, and in Arizona and Californiarnthe year-over-year decline is more than 50 percent.”</p

“The shadow inventory continuedrnto drop in April as the number of completed foreclosures fell by 16 percent onrna year-over-year basis,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.rn”Fewer distressed properties combined with improving home prices and arnpickup in home purchases are significant signals that the ongoing recovery inrnthe housing and mortgage markets continues to gather steam.” </p

The states with the highestrnpercentage of homes in the foreclosure inventory are Florida (9.5 percent), NewrnJersey (7.4 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Maine (4.4 percent) and Nevadarn(4.3 percent).  The highest number ofrncompleted foreclosures over the 12 months period ending in April were in Floridarn(102,000),California (79,000), Michigan (68,000), Texas (53,000) and Georgiarn(47,000).These five states account for almost half of all completedrnforeclosures nationally.

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