The number of completed foreclosures declined by 21.2 percent in July, with 45,000 foreclosures across the country last month compared with 57,000 in July 2013, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic.

On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were down by 8.5 percent from the 49,000 reported in June 2014. (June numbers have been revised.)

Pre-housing crash, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.1 million completed foreclosures across the country.

As of July 2014, approximately 640,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared with 976,000 in July 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 34.4 percent. The foreclosure inventory as of July 2014 made up 1.6 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared with 2.4 percent in July 2013. The foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from June 2014, representing 33 months of consecutive year-over-year declines.

"Based on current trends, the overall foreclosure inventory could trend down to as low as 500,000 homes by year-end, which is very positive news for the housing market. The picture is considerably brighter in the non-judicial states, which maintain consistently lower foreclosure stocks and, in general, lower levels of serious delinquency," Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a statement. "In total, there are now 36 states with an inventory of foreclosed homes lower than the national rate of 1.7 percent."

All but two states posted double-digit declines in foreclosures year over year. The District of Columbia saw a 6.3 percent decline and the state of Wyoming saw a 14.6-percent increase in foreclosures year over year. Massachusetts foreclosures were down 28.9 percent for the 12 months ending in July 2014 by CoreLogic is reckoning, declining from 3,495 to 2,486.

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: New Jersey (5.7 percent), Florida (4.8 percent), New York (4.3 percent), Hawaii (3.0 percent) and Maine (2.7 percent). Massachusetts ranked 23rd among all states by this metric, with 1.2 percent of homes in foreclosure are a percentage of all mortgage homes.