IRVINE, Calif.—The inventory of foreclosed homes in the U.S. declined by 27.3% and completed foreclosures declined by 15.7% in February 2015 from February 2014, according to CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report.
The company said there were 39,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in February 2015, down from 46,000 in February 2014, which represents a decrease of 67% from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010.
“Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure,” the company said. “Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.6 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 7.7 million homes lost to foreclosure.”
CoreLogic also reported that the number of mortgages in serious delinquency declined by 19.3% from February 2014 to February 2015 with 1.5 million mortgages, or 4%, in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO). That is the lowest delinquency rate since June 2008. On a month-over-month basis, the number of seriously delinquent mortgages declined by 1.1%, CoreLogic said.
As of February 2015 the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 553,000 homes compared to 761,000 homes in February 2014. The foreclosure inventory as of February 2015 represented 1.4% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 1.9% in February 2014.
Additional highlights as of February 2015:
- On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were down 11.6% from the 44,000 reported in January 2015. As a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.
- The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in February 2015 were: Florida (110,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (34,000), California (30,000) and Georgia (28,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
- Four states and the District of Columbia had the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in February 2015: South Dakota (15), the District of Columbia (83), North Dakota (334), West Virginia (506) and Wyoming (526).
- On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down by 1.4% from January 2015. The February 2015 foreclosure rate of 1.4% is back to March 2008 levels.
- Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: New Jersey (5.3%), New York (4.0%), Florida (3.4%), Hawaii (2.8%) and the District of Columbia (2.6%).
- The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Alaska (0.3%), Nebraska (0.4%), North Dakota (0.5%), Montana (0.5%) and Minnesota (0.5%).