The inventory of homes at some stage of foreclosure fell 27% in February from the year before, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic.
The analytics and data services provider's National Foreclosure Report found that 553,000 homes were in foreclosure in February, representing 1.4% of all homes nationwide. That figure is down from 1.9% in February 2014.
The number of completed mortgages decreased in February to 39,000 from 46,000 the month prior.
Additionally, the delinquency rate dropped in February, reaching its lowest level since June 2008. In February, 1.5 million mortgages, or 4%, were in serious delinquency, meaning they were 90 days or more past due. Month-to-month, the amount of seriously delinquent mortgages fell by 1.1%.
"While the drop in the share of mortgages in foreclosure to 1.4% is a welcome sign of continued recovery in the housing market, the share remains more than double the 0.6% average foreclosure rate that we saw during 2000-2004," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic, in an April 14 news release announcing the results.
Florida featured the highest number of completed foreclosures at 110,000, followed by Michigan (50,000), Texas (34,000), California (30,000) and Georgia (28,000). Altogether, these states represented nearly half of the completed foreclosures nationwide in February.
