Foreclosures in the United States have dropped by nearly a third from a year ago, according to residential property information, analytics and services provider CoreLogic.
IRVINE – Foreclosures in the United States have dropped by nearly a third from a year ago, according to residential property information, analytics and services provider CoreLogic.
California’s foreclosure inventory was 1.2 percent in May, down 1.3 percentage points from May 2012.
Nationally, as of May 2013, about 1 million homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in May 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 29 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from April 2013 to May 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of May 2013 represented 2.6 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.5 percent in May 2012.
In the 12 months from May 2012 to May of this year, 706,349 foreclosures were completed in the United States. In that same period, 76,063 were completed in California. In addition, 3.9 percent of California homeowners were seriously delinquent on their mortgages, compared with 5.9 percent nationwide.
"The stock of seriously delinquent homes, which is the main driver of shadow inventory, is at the lowest level since December 2008," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Over the last year it has decreased in 42 states by double-digit figures, resulting in rapid declines in shadow inventory for the first quarter of 2013."
"We continue to see a sharp drop in foreclosures around the country and with it a decrease in the size of the shadow inventory. Affordability, despite the rise in home prices over the past year, and consumer confidence are big contributors to these positive trends," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "We are particularly encouraged by the broad-based nature of the housing market recovery so far in 2013."
Foreclosure Highlights:
- The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in May 2013 were: Florida (103,000),California (76,000), Michigan (64,000), Texas (51,000) and Georgia (47,000).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 May 2013 were: District of Columbia (108), Hawaii (453), North Dakota (467), West Virginia (517) and Maine (644).
- The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (8.8 percent), New Jersey (6.0 percent), New York (4.8 percent), Maine (4.1 percent) and Connecticut (4.1 percent).
- The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Wyoming (0.5 percent), Alaska (0.6 percent), North Dakota (0.6 percent), Nebraska (0.8 percent) and Virginia (0.8 percent).
Shadow Inventory Highlights:
- As of April 2013, shadow inventory was under 2 million properties, or 5.3 months' supply, and represented 85 percent of the 2.3 million properties currently seriously delinquent, in foreclosure or REO.
- Of the less than 2 million properties currently in the shadow inventory (Figures 1 and 2), 890,000 properties are seriously delinquent (2.4 months' supply), 761,000 are in some stage of foreclosure (2 months' supply) and 336,000 are already in REO (0.9 months' supply).
- The value of shadow inventory was $314 billion as of April 2013, down from $386 billion in April 2012 and down from $320 billion six months prior, in October 2012.
