June marked the 19th consecutive month that the rate of foreclosure in the U.S. continued to drop, according to CoreLogic's National Foreclosure Report.
The improvement is broad-based, with 49 states posting year-over-year declines, the firm reports.
There were 55,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in June, down 2.5% from 53,000 in May and down 20% from 68,000 in June 2012, according to the report.
About 1 million homes were in some stage of foreclosure as of June, down about 28% from the approximately 1.4 million that were in some stage of foreclosure in June 2012.
Foreclosure inventory was down 2.9% compared to May. Foreclosure inventory represented about 2.5% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 3.4% in June 2012.
"So far this year, distressed inventories have fallen dramatically, down 14.4 percent, and serious delinquencies are down 15.9 percent," said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "In the first six months of 2013, the stock of seriously delinquent mortgages has dropped by 412,000."
For comparison purposes, CoreLogic notes that between 2000 and 2006, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.5 million completed foreclosures across the country, the firm reports.
The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in June were Florida (107,000), California (72,000), Michigan (63,000), Texas (48,000) and Georgia (44,000). These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in June were the District of Columbia (106), Hawaii (397), North Dakota (481), West Virginia (534) and Maine (692).
Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said that while the housing market ‘is clearly on the mend â�¦ we expect the ultimate conclusion of the present housing down cycle to be another several years away.’
For more, click here.
