National Foreclosure Report
According to the June National Foreclosure Report by information provider, CoreLogic, there were 60,000 completed foreclosures in June 2012, compared to 80,000 in June 2011 and a revised 60,000 in May 2012 which was just revised. In a statement, CoreLogic said, “since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 3.7 million completed foreclosures across the country. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.”
Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the national foreclosure inventory as of June 2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in June 2011. Month-over-month, the national foreclosure inventory was unchanged from May 2012 to June 2012. The foreclosure inventory is the share of all mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process.
“While completed foreclosures and real-estate owned (REO) sales virtually offset each other over the past four months, producing static levels of foreclosure inventory for most of this year, they are beginning to diverge again,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Over the last two months REO sales declined while completed foreclosures leveled out. So we could see foreclosure inventory rising going forward.”
“The decline in the flow of completed foreclosures to pre-financial crisis levels is more welcome news pointing to an emerging housing market recovery,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “However, we believe even more can be done to reduce the inventory of foreclosures by decreasing the level of regulatory uncertainty and expanding alternatives to foreclosure.”
California leads the foreclosure pack
Based on number and not proportion, California had 125,000 foreclosures for the 12 months ending in June 2012, followed by Florida at 91,000, Michigan with 58,000, Texas with 56,000, and Georgia with 55,000, with these five states combining to account for half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in June 2012 were South Dakota (39), District of Columbia (81), Hawaii (449), North Dakota (565), and Maine (625).
The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Florida (11.5 percent), New Jersey (6.5 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Illinois (5.0 percent), and Nevada (4.8 percent).
The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Wyoming (0.6 percent), Alaska (0.8 percent), North Dakota (0.8 percent), Nebraska (0.9 percent), and South Dakota (1.2 percent).
