Daily Real Estate News | Thursday, May 01, 2014
In March, about 720,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure, a 37 percent year-over-year decrease, according to CoreLogic’s March 2014 National Foreclosure Report.
“The inventory of homes in foreclosure and serious delinquency status are back to 2008 levels, yet remain elevated from a historical perspective,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “While getting healthier, the housing market is a long way from being fully recovered. By way of comparison, distressed stock inventories are more than three times higher than the levels of the early 2000s, before the most-recent housing boom and subsequent financial crisis.”
Thirty-seven states posted declines of more than 30 percent in year-over-year foreclosure inventory. Arizona, California, and Utah saw declines of more than 50 percent, according to CoreLogic’s report.
Meanwhile, the following five states had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all homes with a mortgage:
New Jersey: 6%
Florida: 5.8%
New York: 4.6%
Maine: 3.2%
Hawaii: 3.1%
“The pathway to a full recovery in housing is proving to be a very long one, but lower distressed stock levels are one clear indicator that we continue to make slow-but-steady progress,” says Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Most states have made good progress clearing their foreclosure inventories, but states that have a longer judicial foreclosure process, such as Florida, New Jersey, and New York, continue to struggle with elevated distressed stock inventories.”
Completed foreclosures — the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure — totaled 48,000 nationally in March, a 10 percent year-over-year decrease, according to CoreLogic. Every state, except for Wyoming and the District of Columbia, saw double-digit year-over-year decreases in completed foreclosures, CoreLogic reports.
In March, 10 percent of existing-home sales were foreclosures, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 18 percent below market value in March.
Source: CoreLogic