U.S. completed foreclosures declined 9.4 percent in May compared with the same month one year ago, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic. On a month-to-month basis, completed foreclosures were up 3.8 percent in May to 47,000 from the 45,000 reported in April 2014.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5 million completed foreclosures across the country.

As of May 2014, approximately 660,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure as of May, compared with 1 million in May 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 37 percent. The foreclosure inventory as of May 2014 represented 1.7 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared with 2.6 percent in May 2013. The foreclosure inventory was down 4.8 percent from April 2014, representing 31 months of consecutive year-over-year declines.

"Significant gains have been made in the last year to reduce the foreclosure stock," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. "Yet, these improvements are occurring disproportionately in non-judicial states. The foreclosure inventory in judicial states is averaging 2.1 percent, which is more than twice the 0.9 percent average that is occurring in non-judicial states."

CoreLogic’s President and CEO Anand Nallathambi offered more sobering news.

"The pace of completed foreclosures slowed in May compared to last month, but I expect this to be a temporary respite," Nallathambi said in a statement. "There is still much more hard work to do to clear the backlog of foreclosed properties. Although difficult, we need to continue to aggressively clear distressed homes to ensure the return of a healthy housing market."

Every state, excluding New York and the District of Columbia, posted double-digit year-over-year declines in foreclosures, and every state posted double-digit year-over-year declines in completed foreclosures. Thirty-eight states show declines in year-over-year foreclosure inventory of greater than 30 percent with Arizona, Utah, Nebraska and Minnesota experiencing declines greater than 50 percent.

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were New Jersey (5.8 percent), Florida (5.2 percent), New York (4.3 percent), Hawaii (3.1 percent) and Maine (2.8 percent).The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Alaska (0.3 percent), Nebraska (0.4 percent), North Dakota (0.4 percent), Wyoming (0.4 percent) and Minnesota (0.5 percent).

In Massachusetts, 1.1 percent of homes were in some stage of foreclosure, down 0.7 percent from the same month last year, and 4.3 percent of all mortgages were seriously delinquent. These numbers were below the national averages of 1.7 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.