Foreclosure filings dropped to the lowest level reported since December 2005, signaling the end of the country's foreclosure crisis, according to Attom Data Solutions.
In September, there were 82,972 properties in foreclosure, down 13% from August and 24% from the same time a year earlier. For the third quarter, there were a total of 293,190 properties with foreclosure filings, representing a 4% increase from the previous quarter but a 10% drop from a year ago.
But perhaps the clearest indication that the housing market has reached the end of the foreclosure crisis is in the year-over-year decline in the average time to foreclose. Properties foreclosed in the third quarter took 625 days on average to complete foreclosure, down one day from the second quarter and five days from the third quarter of 2015.
This is the first time that indicator has decreased year over year since Attom began tracking foreclosure timelines in 2007.
"While we've known that the national foreclosure problem has been dying a long, slow death for quite some time, the final nail in the coffin of the foreclosure crisis is the year-over-year decrease in the average foreclosure timeline nationwide that we saw in Q3 2016," Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at Attom Data Solutions, said in a news release.
"The decrease in the average foreclosure timeline indicates that banks have worked through the bulk of the legacy foreclosure backlog in most states — with a few lingering exceptions — and that most of the foreclosures being completed now are relatively recent defaults that are more efficiently progressing through the foreclosure pipeline."
Additionally, Attom reported that foreclosure starts totaled 34,685 properties, a 13% month-over-month decrease and an 11-year low. Bank repossessions also dropped 12% from August and 32% from September 2015 to 27,514 properties.
