A "strong downward trend" in foreclosures and delinquencies has continued, with foreclosure starts plunging to their lowest levels in six years
A "strong downward trend" in foreclosures and delinquencies has continued, with foreclosure starts plunging to their lowest levels in six years.
Lender Processing Services' July Mortgage Monitor shows delinquencies dropped to 6.41% in July, down 3.96% from June. Foreclosure presale inventory was also down, falling 3.46% from June. LPS Data & Analytics senior vice president Herb Blecher said the numbers, encouraging as they were, still failed to do justice to the actual improvement in foreclosures and delinquencies.
"Overall, the data shows that the strong downward trend in delinquencies and foreclosures continues nationwide, with a decrease in foreclosure starts contributing to this improvement. For the year to date, 2013 has produced the lowest level of foreclosure starts since 2007. Given that nearly 50% of these are repeat foreclosures means that the picture is even more positive than a surface reading of the numbers might suggest," Blecher said.
Short sales and overall distressed sales were down significantly as well. Overall distressed sales fell 30% year-over-year, while short sales were down 60% compared to the same period in 2012.
