Foreclosures continue to fall
According to CoreLogic’s December National Foreclosure Report, there were 620,111 completed foreclosures for the year, down 24 percent from 2012’s 820,498 completed foreclosures. Compared to November’s revised data, December’s foreclosure levels fell 4.1 percent for the month, and dipped 14 percent compared to December 2012.
As of December 2013, foreclosure inventory (homes in some stage of foreclosure) fell 31 percent from the previous December, and dropped 2.7 percent compared to November. Since housing crashed in September of 2008, 4.8 million foreclosures have been completed in America.
Foreclosure inventory is on the decline
“The foreclosure inventory fell by more than 30 percent in December on a year-over-year basis, twice the decline from a year ago,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “The decline indicates that the distressed foreclosure inventory is healing at an accelerating rate heading into 2014.”
“Clearly, 2013 was a transitional year for residential property in the United States. Higher home prices and lower shadow inventory levels, together with a slowly improving economy, are hopeful signals that we are turning a long-awaited corner,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The housing market should continue to heal in 2014, but we expect progress to remain very slow.”
Regional performance varied
As of December 2013, the five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in December 2013 were Florida (119,000), Michigan (53,000), California (39,000), Texas (39,000), and Georgia (35,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in December 2013 were District of Columbia (63), North Dakota (417), Hawaii (493), West Virginia (505), and Wyoming (759).
The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Florida (6.7 percent), New Jersey (6.5 percent), New York (4.9 percent), Connecticut (3.6 percent), and Maine (3.6 percent).
The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Wyoming (0.4 percent), Alaska (0.5 percent), North Dakota (0.6 percent), Colorado (0.6 percent), and Nebraska (0.6 percent).
