The U.S. foreclosure rate dropped by 8.6% in July, compared to June, and was down by 25%, compared to July 2012, according to CoreLogic's monthly National Foreclosure Report.
There were about 49,000 completed foreclosures in July, down from about 53,000 in June and down considerably from the approximately 65,000 reported in July 2012.
For comparison purposes, the average number of foreclosures per month from 2000 to 2006 was about 21,000.
Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.5 million completed foreclosures across the country, CoreLogic reports.
As of July, approximately 949,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in July 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 32%.
Month over month, foreclosure inventory was down 4.4% in July, compared to June. Foreclosure inventory represented about 2.4% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 3.4% in July 2012.
‘As the housing market continues to recover, the foreclosure inventory is declining quickly, down by 32 percent from a year ago,’ says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a release. ‘Continued strength in the housing market will contribute to our outlook for ongoing improvement in the stock of distressed assets through the end of this year.’
Not surprisingly, non-judicial states have had the most success in reducing shadow inventory and lowering delinquency rates, as they are able to move foreclosures through the legal process more quickly.
States with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes included Florida (8.1%), New Jersey (5.9%), New York (4.7%), Connecticut (4%) and Maine (4%).
States with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes included Wyoming (0.4%), Alaska (0.6%), North Dakota (0.7%), Nebraska (0.7%) and Colorado (0.8%).
States with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in July 2013 included Florida (110,000), California (65,000), Michigan (61,000), Texas (45,000) and Georgia (41,000). These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
States with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in July included the District of Columbia (141), North Dakota (484), West Virginia (505), Hawaii (512) and Maine (754).
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