Completed Foreclosures Fall Again in December: CoreLogic

The housing industry experienced another positive sign on Tuesday as CoreLogic reported that completed foreclosures declined 14% in December from the previous year.

There were 39,000 completed foreclosures in December, which is 66% less than the September 2010 peak, the Irvine, Calif.-based analytic provider said. For all of last year, there were 563,294 foreclosures finalized, which would mark the lowest 12-month sum in seven years.

The states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in December were Florida (118,000), Michigan (49,000), Texas (35,000), California (29,000) and Ohio (28,000).

The foreclosure inventory stood at 552,000 homes through December, down 34% from the previous year. The current foreclosure rate of 1.4% for all homes with a mortgage is back to March 2008 levels.

All states posted double-digit year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory except for West Virginia, which decreased by 9.5%. Furthermore, the foreclosure inventory in Washington, D.C., was up by 21.7% compared to last December.

Meanwhile, many consumer advocates expect the number of evictions to increase in the coming months on properties entering foreclosure following the expiration of the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act.

Additionally, CoreLogic said the serious delinquency rate reached its lowest percentage since June 2008, at 4.1%. A year earlier, 21.6% of homes were considered to be 90 or more days past due.