The country’s current residential shadow inventory as of April declined to 1.7 million units, representing a five-month supply, according to California-based CoreLogic, a provider of information, analytics and business services.

April’s residential shadow inventory is down from 1.9 million units, also a five-month supply, from a year ago. The decline was due to fewer new delinquencies and the high level of distressed sales, which helped reduce the number of outstanding distressed loans, according to a statement. Of the 1.7 million current shadow inventory supply, 790,000 units are seriously delinquent (2.6 months’ supply), 440,000 are in some stage of foreclosure (1.4 months’ supply) and 440,000 are already in REO (1.4 months’ supply).

"The shadow inventory has declined by nearly one-fifth since it peaked in early 2010, in large part due to a reduced flow of newly delinquent loans in recent months," said Mark Fleming, chief economist, CoreLogic. "However, it will probably take several years for the shadow inventory to be absorbed given the long timelines in processing and completing foreclosures."