37,000 Completed U.S. Foreclosures in October, Says CoreLogic

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National Foreclosure Inventory Down 21.5 Percent from October 2014

Based on CoreLogic's October 2015 National Foreclosure Report, U.S. foreclosure inventory declined by 21.5 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 27.1 percent compared with October 2014.

The number of completed foreclosures nationwide decreased year over year from 51,000 in October 2014 to 37,000 in October 2015. The number of completed foreclosures in October 2015 was down 68.2 percent from the peak of 117,543 in September 2010.

The foreclosure inventory is the share of all homes at some stage of the foreclosure process, and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 6 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been about 8 million homes lost to foreclosure.

As of October 2015, the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 463,000, or 1.2 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 589,000 homes, or 1.5 percent, in October 2014. This is lowest rate since November 2007.

Irvine, Ca-based CoreLogic also reports that the number of mortgages in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO) declined by 19.7 percent from October 2014 to October 2015 with 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.4 percent, in this category. This is the lowest serious delinquency rate since December 2007.

"Improved economic conditions and more foreclosure completions have pushed the foreclosure rate lower," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The national unemployment rate declined to 5.0 percent in October, the lowest since December 2007, and the CoreLogic national Home Price Index has risen 37.0 percent from its trough."

"We are heading into 2016 with the lowest foreclosure inventory in eight years thanks to escalating home values and progressive improvement in the U.S. economy. A large proportion of the remaining foreclosure inventory is clustered in New York, New Jersey and Florida," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Equally encouraging is the drop in mortgage delinquency rates reflecting the stronger labor market and tighter underwriting since 2009."

Additional October 2015 market highlights:

• On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased by 12.3 percent to 37,000 from the 43,000 reported in September 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.

• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in October 2015 were Florida (86,000), Michigan (59,000), Texas (30,000), Georgia (25,000) and California (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 October 2015: the District of Columbia (76), North Dakota (239), Wyoming (515), West Virginia (571) and Hawaii (700).

• Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory rate in October 2015: New Jersey (4.5 percent), New York (3.6 percent), Hawaii (2.5 percent), Florida (2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.3 percent).

• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate in October 2015 were Alaska (0.4 percent), Arizona (0.4 percent), Minnesota (0.4 percent), North Dakota (0.4 percent) and Colorado (0.4 percent).