U.S. foreclosure inventory plunged, but it’s not yet time to break out champagne. Housing experts aren’t quite ready yet to declare the foreclosure crisis over. And while things look better nationwide, Florida retains a leading spot as the No. 2 state for foreclosures – 5 percent of all homes with a mortgage statewide.
Completed foreclosures fell 9.9 percent year-over-year in June, but on a month-to-month basis, completed foreclosures ticked up 2.7 percent compared to May, according to CoreLogic’s June National Foreclosure Report. June saw 54,000 completed foreclosures – a still elevated number compared to historical averages of about 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006.
In June, about 648,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure, known as foreclosure inventory, compared to 1 million last year at this time, CoreLogic reports. Foreclosure inventory has fallen 35 percent year-over-year and the foreclosure inventory now makes up 1.7 percent of all U.S. homes with a mortgage. It’s the 32nd consecutive month for a year-over-year decline.
“While 32 straight months of a year-over-year decline in the foreclosure rate is cause for celebration, the total number of homes still in the foreclosure process remains almost four times as high as the average in the early 2000s,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Additionally, there is concern over whether or not we can maintain this pace of improvement as the foreclosure inventory becomes more concentrated in judicial states with lengthier, more complex processes and timelines.”
Five states with the highest foreclosure inventory (as percentage of all homes with a mortgage) in June
- New Jersey: 5.7%
- Florida: 5%
- New York: 4.3%
- Hawaii: 3.1%
- Maine: 2.7%
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=311719
