There were about 37,000 completed foreclosures in August – an increase of 7.7% compared with about 34,000 in July but a decrease of 42.4% compared with about 64,000 in August 2015, according to CoreLogic.
What’s more, completed foreclosures were down 69% compared with the peak of 118,221 in September 2010.
Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 6.4 million completed foreclosures nationally, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.5 million homes lost to foreclosure, CoreLogic reports.
As of the end of August, there were about 351,000 homes, or 0.9% of all homes with a mortgage, in the national foreclosure inventory – down from about 499,000 homes, or 1.3%, in August 2015 to reach the lowest level since July 2007.
The foreclosure inventory decreased 29.6% relative to August 2015.
About 1.1 million mortgages, or 2.8% of all homes with a mortgage, were seriously delinquent (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure or real estate owned) in August – a decrease of 20.6% from August 2015 to reach the lowest level since September 2007.
“Foreclosure inventory fell by 30 percent from the previous year – the largest year-over-year decline since January 2015,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a statement. “The large decline in the distressed inventory has been one of the drivers of steady home price growth, which helps Americans increase their home equity to support increased spending or cushion future economic risk.”
“Foreclosure rates and serious delinquency continued to trend down in August as real estate markets across many parts of the U.S. exhibit strong demand growth and rising prices,” added Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “With the foreclosure inventory now under one percent nationally, the need to boost single-family housing stocks through new construction will become more acute in the coming months and years.”
States with the highest numbers of completed foreclosures in the 12 months ended in August were Florida (55,000), Texas (27,000), Ohio (23,000), California (22,000) and Georgia (21,000). These five states account for about 35% of completed foreclosures nationally.
States with the lowest numbers of completed foreclosures included the District of Columbia (212), North Dakota (341), West Virginia (469), Alaska (624) and Montana (717).