A new report on June foreclosure data from the data and analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services finds that the U.S. foreclosure inventory has dropped to its lowest level since May of 2008. This is the 26th straight month of foreclosure inventory declines.

However, foreclosure starts rose in June for the second month in a row. Year over year, foreclosure starts were down 19 percent.

Delinquency rates also increased slightly from May. The total U.S. loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 5.7 percent in June, up 1.55 percent from May and down 14.59 percent compared with June 2013.

The total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate was 1.88, down 1.5 percent from May and down 35.65 percent from June 2013. There were 88,300 total U.S. foreclosure starts last month, up 2.32 percent compared with May and down 18.99 percent compared with June 2013.

The number of foreclosure sales as percentage of the total seriously delinquent inventory was 1.73 percent in June, a decline of 11.65 percent from May and a decline of 16.94 percent from the same time last year. There were 2,883,000 total delinquent properties across the country, up 44,000 from May and down 445,000 from the same time last year. Of those, 1,155,000 were seriously delinquent, that is, 90 days or more past due. That number is down 14,000 from May and down 190,000 from the same time last year.

There were 951,000 in foreclosure pre-sale inventory, down 15,000 from May and down 507,000 from the same time last year.

The top five states with the highest number of delinquent loans were Mississippi (14.05 percent), New Jersey (12.61 percent), Florida (11.18), New York (10.93 percent) and Louisiana (10.86).

The top five states with the highest number of seriously delinquent (90 or more days past due) loans were Mississippi (5.31 percent), Alabama (3.72 percent), Rhode Island (3.62 percent), Nevada (3.58 percent) and Massachusetts, at 3.47 percent.