National Home Foreclosure Inventory Down 23.4 Percent Annual in U.S.

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According to CoreLogic's National Foreclosure Report for April 2016, U.S. foreclosure inventory declined by 23.4 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 15.8 percent compared with April 2015. The number of completed foreclosures nationwide decreased year over year from 43,000 in April 2015 to 37,000 in April 2016, representing a decrease of 68.9 percent from the peak of 117,813 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 6.2 million completed foreclosures nationally, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.3 million homes lost to foreclosure.

As of April 2016, the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 406,000, or 1.1 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 530,000 homes, or 1.4 percent, in April 2015. The April 2016 foreclosure inventory rate is the lowest for any month since September 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 21.6 percent from April 2015 to April 2016, with 1.1 million mortgages, or 3 percent, in this category. The April 2016 serious delinquency rate is the lowest in more than eight years, since October 2007.

"The recovery in home prices and improved labor market have contributed to the drop in seriously delinquent rates," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Over the 12 months through April, the CoreLogic Home Price Index for the U.S. rose 6.2 percent and the labor market gained 2.6 million jobs. We also found that the seriously delinquent rate fell by about three-quarters of a percentage point."

"The number of homeowners who have negative equity has fallen by two-thirds since its 2010 peak, and the number of borrowers in foreclosure proceedings has also continued to drop," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Despite this progress, about four million homeowners remained underwater at the end of the first quarter, and these borrowers are more vulnerable to foreclosure proceedings if they should fall delinquent."

Additional April 2016 U.S. Foreclosure stats:

• On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased by 0.3 percent to 37,000 in April 2016 from the 36,000 reported for March 2016. 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 3 percent compared with March 2016.

• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures were Florida (66,000), Michigan (47,000), Texas (27,000), Ohio (23,000) and California (23,000). These five states accounted for about 40 percent of all completed foreclosures nationally.

• Four states and the District of Columbia had the lowest number of completed foreclosures: The District of Columbia (128), North Dakota (317), West Virginia (482), Alaska (653) and Montana (695).

• Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory rate: New Jersey (3.7 percent), New York (3.2 percent), Hawaii (2.2 percent), the District of Columbia (2.1 percent) and Florida (2 percent).

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