The number of nationwide foreclosures dropped 27 percent in May compared to the same time last year, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic.

There were 52,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in May 2013, down from 71,000 in 2012. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased 3.5 percent, from 50,000 in April 2013 to the May level of 52,000.

According to CoreLogic’s estimates, current residential shadow inventory as of April 2013 was under 2 million units, representing a supply of 5.3 months. The overall shadow inventory is down 34 percent from its peak in 2010, when it reached 3 million homes, and down 18 percent from a year ago, when it was at 2.4 million.

As a basis of comparison to the 52,000 completed foreclosures reported for May 2013, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.4 million completed foreclosures across the country.

As of May 2013, approximately 1.0 million homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in May 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 29 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from April 2013 to May 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of May 2013 represented 2.6 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.5 percent in May 2012.

At the end of May 2013, there are fewer than 2.3 million mortgages, or 5.6 percent, in serious delinquency – SDQ, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO. The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages is at its lowest level since December 2008.

"The stock of seriously delinquent homes, which is the main driver of shadow inventory, is at the lowest level since December 2008," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement.  "Over the last year it has decreased in 42 states by double-digit figures, resulting in rapid declines in shadow inventory for the first quarter of 2013."

In Massachusetts, 1.8 percent of home loans were in foreclosure, a decline of 0.2 percent from May 2012, and 4.9 percent of homes were seriously delinquent, according to Corelogic.

Massachusetts ranked 26th among the 50 states and the District of Colombia in percentage of home in foreclosure.

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Florida, 8.8 percent, New Jersey, 6 percent, New York, 4.8 percent, Maine, 4.1 percent, and Connecticut, 4.1 percent.

As of April 2013, shadow inventory was under 2 million properties, or 5.3 months’ supply, and represented 85 percent of the 2.3 million properties currently seriously delinquent, in foreclosure or REO.

Of the less than 2 million properties currently in the shadow inventory, 890,000 properties are seriously delinquent, 2.4 months’ supply), 761,000 are in some stage of foreclosure, 2 months’ supply, and 336,000 are already in REO, 0.9 months’ supply.

The value of shadow inventory was $314 billion as of April 2013, down from $386 billion in April 2012 and down from $320 billion six months prior, in October 2012.