The U.S. foreclosure inventory shrank by 37 percent in March compared with the same time a year ago, while the number of completed foreclosures dropped 10 percent, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic.

There were 48,000 completed foreclosures nationally in March, down from 53,000 in March 2013. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were up 5.9 percent from the 45,000 reported in February.

Before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5 million completed foreclosures across the country.

As of March 2014, approximately 720,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure, compared with 1.1 million in March 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 37 percent. The foreclosure inventory as of March represented 1.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared with 2.8 percent in March 2013. The foreclosure inventory was down 5.1 percent from February 2014, representing the 29th month of year-over-year declines.

"The inventory of homes in foreclosure and serious delinquency status are back to 2008 levels, yet remain elevated from a historical perspective," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. "While getting healthier, the housing market is a long way from being fully recovered."

Every state except for Wyoming and the District of Columbia posted double-digit year-over-year declines in completed foreclosures in March. Thirty-seven states show declines in year-over-year foreclosure inventory of greater than 30 percent with Arizona, California and Utah experiencing declines greater than 50 percent.

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were New Jersey (6.0 percent), Florida (5.8 percent), New York (4.6 percent), Maine (3.2 percent) and Hawaii (3.1 percent).

In Massachusetts, 1.2 percent of all homes with a mortgage were in some stage of foreclosure, down 0.7 percent from the same time a year ago, while 4.5 percent of mortgages were seriously delinquent. These numbers were slightly below the national averages of 1.8 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. The Bay State ranked 25th among all states for foreclosure inventory.