60,000 U.S. Foreclosures Completed in June; 24 Percent Decline Over Last Year

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According to CoreLogic 's latest National Foreclosure Report for June, there were 60,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in June 2012 compared to 80,000 in June 2011 and 60,000 in May 2012.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 3.7 million completed foreclosures across the country. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.

Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the national foreclosure inventory as of June 2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in June 2011. Month-over-month, the national foreclosure inventory was unchanged from May 2012 to June 2012. The foreclosure inventory is the share of all mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process.

"While completed foreclosures and real-estate owned (REO) sales virtually offset each other over the past four months, producing static levels of foreclosure inventory for most of this year, they are beginning to diverge again," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Over the last two months REO sales declined while completed foreclosures leveled out. So we could see foreclosure inventory rising going forward."

"The decline in the flow of completed foreclosures to pre-financial crisis levels is more welcome news pointing to an emerging housing market recovery," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "However, we believe even more can be done to reduce the inventory of foreclosures by decreasing the level of regulatory uncertainty and expanding alternatives to foreclosure."

Report Highlights for June 2012:

• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in June 2012 were: California (125,000), Florida (91,000), Michigan (58,000), Texas (56,000) and Georgia (55,000). These five states account for 48.4 percent of all completed foreclosures nationally.

• The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in June 2012 were: South Dakota (39), District of Columbia (81), Hawaii (449), North Dakota (565), and Maine (625).

• The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (11.5 percent), New Jersey (6.5 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Illinois (5.0 percent) and Nevada (4.8 percent).

• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Wyoming (0.6 percent), Alaska (0.8 percent), North Dakota (0.8 percent), Nebraska (0.9 percent) and South Dakota (1.2 percent).