The U.S. foreclosure inventory dropped by 33.2 percent in January compared with a year ago, while completed foreclosures dipped by 22.5 percent, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic. There were 43,000 completed foreclosures in January 2015, compared with 55,000 in January 2014. Before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.
As of January 2015, the foreclosure inventory across the country totaled approximately 549,000 homes, compared with 822,000 in January 2014, a year-over-year decrease of 33.2 percent and representing 39 consecutive months of year-over-year declines. The foreclosure inventory as of January 2015 made up 1.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared with 2 percent in January 2014. On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down 2.7 percent from December 2014. The current foreclosure rate of 1.4 percent is the lowest inventory level since March 2008.
"Job growth and home-value appreciation have worked to push the serious delinquency rate to the lowest since mid-2008 and foreclosures down by one-third from a year ago," Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement. "With economic growth in 2015 expected to be better than last year, further declines in both delinquencies and foreclosures are projected for this year."
The number of mortgages in serious delinquency declined 23.8 percent from January 2014 to January 2015 with 1.5 million mortgages, or 4 percent, in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO). This was the lowest delinquency rate since June 2008.
According to CoreLogic, 1.3 percent of Massachusetts homes were in the foreclosure inventory, below the national average but 21st among all states and the District of Colombia. That number stayed flat from a year ago. The percentage of seriously delinquent loans in the Bay State was 4.1 percent, slightly above the national average of 4 percent.
