Foreclosure inventory declined by 27.4 percent and completed foreclosures dropped by 19.2 percent in May 2015 from May 2014, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic. The number of foreclosures nationwide decreased year over year to 41,000 in May 2015 from 51,000 in May 2014 , a decrease of 64.9 percent from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010, according to CoreLogic data.

There have been approximately 5.7 million completed foreclosures across the country since the financial crisis began in September 2008. Homeownership rates have since peaked in the second quarter of 2004, with approximately 7.8 million homes lost to foreclosure.

As of May 2015, the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 491,000, or 1.3 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 676,000 homes, or 1.7 percent, in May 2014. This is the lowest foreclosure rate since December 2007.

The number of mortgages in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO) declined in May by 22.7 percent from May 2014, with 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.5 percent, falling into this category, according to the report.

“With three million jobs created during the past year, the improving labor market has helped more borrowers stay current on their mortgage loan,” Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. “Because fewer loans are becoming seriously delinquent, the foreclosure inventory has come down to its lowest level in more than seven years, with only 1.3 percent of loans in foreclosure proceedings.”

On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased by 4.1 percent from the 39,000 reported in April 2015. 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 May 2015 were: Florida (104,000), Michigan (46,000), Texas (33,000), California (28,000) and Ohio (27,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

In Massachusetts, there were 4,079 foreclosures for the past 12 months ending in May, an increase of 22 percent from the same period last year, according to CoreLogic. The Bay State’s foreclosure inventory was at 1.4 percent, while 3.7 percent of Massachusetts homeowners were seriously delinquent, down 0.6 percent from the same time last year.

Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: New Jersey (4.9 percent), New York (3.7 percent), Florida (2.9 percent), Hawaii (2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.4 percent).