There were about 38,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in January – an increase of 16.4% compared with about 33,000 in December but a decrease of 16.2% compared with about 46,000 in January 2015, according to CoreLogic’s January 2016 National Foreclosure Report.
States that saw the most completed foreclosures during the 12 months ended in January included Florida (74,000), Michigan (49,000), Texas (29,000), California (25,000) and Ohio (24,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
States that saw the fewest completed foreclosures included the District of Columbia (97), North Dakota (298), Wyoming (551), West Virginia (589) and Alaska (707).
The number of completed foreclosures in January was down 67.6% from the peak of 117,743 in September 2010, CoreLogic says.
Still, the housing market has quite a bit more healing to do before things are back to “normal”: CoreLogic points out that between 2000 and 2006, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide.
Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, about 6.1 million homes have been lost to foreclosure. Since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.2 million homes lost to foreclosure, according to CoreLogic.
The foreclosure inventory – which is the number of homes that are in some stage of foreclosure – decreased 1.6% compared with December and decreased 21.7% compared with January 2015.
As of January, the foreclosure inventory included about 456,000 homes – or about 1.2% of all homes with a mortgage. That’s compared with about 583,000 homes – or about 1.5% – in January 2015.
CoreLogic notes that the foreclosure inventory has been hovering at around 1.2% since October 2015.
States with the highest foreclosure inventory rates included New Jersey (4.3%), New York (3.5%), Hawaii (2.4%), Florida (2.3%) and the District of Columbia (2.3%).
States with the lowest foreclosure inventory rates in included Alaska (0.3%), Minnesota (0.4%), Colorado (0.4%), Arizona (0.4%) and Utah (0.4%).
About 1.2 million mortgages, or 3.2% of all homes with a mortgage, were seriously delinquent (90 or more days past due) in January. That’s a decrease of about 22.5% compared with January 2015.
“In January, the national foreclosure rate was 1.2 percent, down to one-third the peak from exactly five years earlier in January 2011, a remarkable improvement,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “The months’ supply of foreclosure fell to 12 months, which is modestly above the nine-month rate seen 10 years earlier and indicates the market’s ability to clear the stock of foreclosures is close to normal.”
“The improvement in distressed properties continues across the country in every state, which is contributing to the lack of stock of available homes and resulting price escalation in many markets,” adds Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “So far, the trend toward lower delinquency and foreclosures has been immune from shocks from such things as the collapse in oil prices attesting to the durability of the housing recovery.”
The LTV ratios on a majority of housing purchases in the Phoenix Market are maxed out, and with low interest rates to encourage marginal buyers, this can and will create a very similar scenario to the bust days.