38,000 Completed U.S. Foreclosures in January, Inventory Down 21 Percent

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According to CoreLogic's latest January 2016 National Foreclosure Report, U.S. foreclosure inventory declined by 21.7 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 16.2 percent compared with January 2015. The number of completed foreclosures nationwide decreased year over year from 46,000 in January 2015 to 38,000 in January 2016. The number of completed foreclosures in January 2016 was down 67.6 percent from the peak of 117,743 in September 2010.

The foreclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 6.1 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.2 million homes lost to foreclosure.

As of January 2016, the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 456,000, or 1.2 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 583,000 homes, or 1.5 percent, in January 2015. The January 2016 foreclosure inventory rate has been steady at 1.2 percent since October of 2015 and is the lowest for any month since November 2007.

CoreLogic also reports that the number of mortgages in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure or REO) declined by 22.5 percent from January 2015 to January 2016, with 1.2 million mortgages, or 3.2 percent, in this category. The January 2016 serious delinquency rate is the lowest in eight years, since November 2007.

"In January, the national foreclosure rate was 1.2 percent, down to one-third the peak from exactly five years earlier in January 2011, a remarkable improvement," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The months' supply of foreclosure fell to 12 months, which is modestly above the nine-month rate seen 10 years earlier and indicates the market's ability to clear the stock of foreclosures is close to normal."

"The improvement in distressed properties continues across the country in every state which is contributing to the lack of stock of available homes and resulting price escalation in many markets," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "So far the trend toward lower delinquency and foreclosures has been immune from shocks from such things as the collapse in oil prices attesting to the durability of the housing recovery."

Additional January 2016 highlights:

• On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased by 16.4 percent to 38,000 in January 2016 from the 33,000 reported in December 2015. As a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

• On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down 1.6 percent in January 2016 compared to December 2015.

• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in January 2016 were Florida (74,000), Michigan (49,000), Texas (29,000), California (25,000) and Ohio (24,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

• Four states and the District of Columbia had the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in January 2016: the District of Columbia (97), North Dakota (298), Wyoming (551), West Virginia (589) and Alaska (707).

• Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory rates in January 2016: New Jersey (4.3 percent), New York (3.5 percent), Hawaii (2.4 percent), Florida (2.3 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.3 percent).

• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate in January 2016 were Alaska (0.3 percent), Minnesota (0.4 percent), Colorado (0.4 percent), Arizona (0.4 percent) and Utah (0.4 percent).