The residential shadow inventory, as of July, fell to 2.3 million units, representing a supply of six months, according to new data from Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic. This is a 10.2% drop from July 2011, when shadow inventory stood at 2.6 million units – which is approximately the same level the country was experiencing in March 2009.
CoreLogic adds that of the 2.3 million properties currently in the shadow inventory, 1 million units are seriously delinquent (2.9-months' supply), 900,000 are in some stage of foreclosure (2.5-months' supply) and 345,000 are already in REO (a one month supply). The dollar volume of shadow inventory was $382 billion as of July, down from $397 billion a year ago and $385 billion in June.
As of July, five states – Florida, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey – made up 45% of all distressed properties in the country.
‘The decline in shadow inventory has recently moderated, reflecting the lower outflow of distressed sales over the past year,’ says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. ‘While a lower outflow of distressed sales helps alleviate downward home price pressure, long foreclosure timelines in some parts of the country causes these pools of shadow inventory to remain in limbo for an extended period of time.’