U.S. Foreclosure Inventory Down 25.7 Percent Annually

---

According to CoreLogic's March 2015 National Foreclosure Report, the foreclosure inventory declined by 25.7 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 15.5 percent from March 2014. There were 41,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in March 2015, down from 48,000 in March 2014, representing a decrease of 65.2 percent from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010.

Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.6 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 7.7 million homes lost to foreclosure.

CoreLogic also reports that the number of mortgages in serious delinquency declined by 19.1 percent from March 2014 to March 2015 with 1.5 million mortgages, or 3.9 percent, in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO). This is the lowest delinquency rate since May 2008. On a month-over-month basis, the number of seriously delinquent mortgages declined by 1.9 percent.

As of March 2015, the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 542,000 homes, or 1.4 percent, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 729,000 homes, or 1.9 percent, in March 2014, representing a year-over-year decline of 25.7 percent.

"We are seeing additional improvement in housing market conditions due to a decline in the serious delinquency rate to 3.9 percent, far below the peak of 8.6 percent in early 2010," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Despite the decline in the number of loans that are 90 days or more delinquent or in foreclosure, the percent of homeowners struggling to keep up is still well above the pre-recession average of 1.5 percent."

"Foreclosures and serious delinquency rates continue to drop as the home purchase market begins to emerge from its eight-year slump," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Based on the current trends in completed foreclosure rates, we expect the foreclosure inventory to drop below 1.3 percent by midyear, a level not seen since the end of 2007. Many states in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as Florida, still have elevated levels of distressed housing, but they are making more rapid progress as of late. In March, foreclosures in these areas accounted for a large proportion of completed foreclosures."

Additional highlights as of March 2015:

• On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased by 7 percent from the 38,000 reported in February 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 March 2015 were: Florida (110,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (34,000), Georgia (28,000) and Ohio (28,000).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 March 2015: South Dakota (16), the District of Columbia (87), North Dakota (326), West Virginia (462) and Wyoming (517).

• On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down by 1.3 percent from February 2015. The March 2015 foreclosure rate of 1.4 percent is back to March 2008 levels.

• Four states and the District of Columbia had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: New Jersey (5.3 percent), New York (3.9 percent), Florida (3.3 percent), Hawaii (2.7 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.5 percent).

• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Alaska (0.3 percent), Nebraska (0.4 percent), North Dakota (0.5 percent), Montana (0.5 percent) and Colorado (0.5 percent).