Foreclosures plummeted year-over-year in September, according to a leading analytics firm
Foreclosures plummeted year-over-year in September, according to a leading analytics firm.
According to CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report, released Thursday, there were 51,000 completed foreclosures nationally in September, down 39% from September 2012’s 84,000. On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure rate was fairly stable, creeping down only 0.7% from August.
“The foreclosure inventory continues to decline, now standing at an early 2009 level,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Just over 900,000 properties remain in the inventory, two thirds of them in judicial states where the foreclosure process is typically slower. Consequently, the pace of overall improvement in the inventory will slow down and distressed assets will cast a long shadow over housing markets in states with judicial foreclosure.”
“The number of seriously delinquent mortgages continues to drop across the country at a rapid rate with every state showing year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “We're not out of the woods yet, but these are encouraging signs for a return to a healthier housing market in the U.S.”
Florida had the highest number of completed foreclosures in the last 12 months at 115,000, according to CoreLogic. Rounding out the top five were California (52,000), Texas (43,000), Michigan (40,000) and Georgia (39,000). Taken together, those five states accounted for almost half of all completed U.S. foreclosures.
