A total of 2 percent of all homes with a mortgage in Massachusetts were in the foreclosure inventory as of April, better than the nation’s 3.4 percent average, according to a new report from California data firm CoreLogic.
Nationally, 1.4 million homes were in the foreclosure inventory as of April. The number of loans in the foreclosure inventory has leveled off since the beginning of the year, and in April decreased 0.1 percent from 1.5 million homes in April 2011.
In Massachusetts, the inventory of homes in foreclosure declined 0.1 percent from April 2011.
The foreclosure inventory is the stock of homes in the foreclosure process. A property moves into the foreclosure inventory when the mortgage servicer places the property into the foreclosure process after serious delinquency is reached, and remains there until the foreclosure is completed, CoreLogic said. The foreclosure inventory is measured only against homes with an outstanding mortgage, rather than against all homes. Nationwide, roughly one-third of homeowners own their homes outright.
"The inventory of homes in foreclosure in judicial foreclosure states is growing, but this increase is being more than offset by declining inventories in non-judicial states where the processing timelines to clear a foreclosure are shorter," Anand Nallathambi, chief executive officer of CoreLogic, said in a statement.
In Massachusetts, which is a judicial foreclosure state, the number of completed foreclosures for the 12-month period ended in April was 8,690.
The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in April were: California (142,000), Florida (92,000), Michigan (60,000), Texas (58,000) and Georgia (57,000). These five states account for 48.8 percent of all completed foreclosures nationally.
The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (12.0 percent), New Jersey (6.7 percent), Illinois (5.3 percent), Nevada (5.0 percent) and New York (5.0 percent).
The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory were: Wyoming (0.7 percent), Alaska (0.8 percent), North Dakota (0.9 percent), Nebraska (1.0 percent) and South Dakota (1.4 percent).
