U.S. foreclosure inventory declined 35 percent in February compared with the same time a year ago, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic.
There were 43,000 completed foreclosures in the United States in February 2014, down from 51,000 in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 15 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 13.1 percent from 50,000 in January 2014.
National residential shadow inventory was 1.7 million homes as of January 2014 compared with 2.2 million in January 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 23 percent.
"Although there is good news that completed foreclosures are trending lower, the bigger news is the impressive decline in the foreclosure and shadow inventories," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. "Every state has had double-digit, year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory, which is reflected in the $70 billion decline in the shadow inventory."
As of February 2014, approximately 752,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared with 1.2 million in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 35 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from January 2014. The foreclosure inventory as of February represented 1.9 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared with 2.9 percent in February 2013.
At the end of February 2014, there were 1.9 million mortgages, or 4.9 percent, in serious delinquency, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real-estate owned (REO). Massachusetts’ serious delinquency rate was 4.6 percent, below the national average, according to CoreLogic.
The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending February 2014 were Florida (118,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (39,000), California (37,000) and Georgia (34,000).These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally. Massachusetts recorded 2,902, according to CoreLogic.
The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes as of February 2014 were New Jersey (6.2 percent), Florida (6.0 percent), New York (4.7 percent), Maine (3.4 percent) and Connecticut (3.2 percent). Massachusetts’ rate was 1.6 percent, below the national average.
