The national foreclosure rate in May fell to its lowest level since December 2007 as the housing market showed continued signs of improvement, according to a report from CoreLogic.
The report found that the national foreclosure inventory in May dropped 30 basis points to 1.3%, or roughly 491,000 homes, from 1.7%, or 676,000 homes, a year ago. The number of completed foreclosures similarly declined, falling to 41,000 in May, about 10,000 fewer year-over-year.
Similarly, the number of mortgages in serious delinquency improved. Only 1.3 million mortgages, representing 3.5% of the total inventory, were in serious delinquency, a 22.7% decline from May 2014.
But not everything is peachy, according to CoreLogic president and chief executive Anand Nallathambi.
"While the nation's seriously delinquent rate — 3.5% — is at its lowest level since January 2008, it remains very high in several big markets," Nallathambi said. "The greater New York City region and Central Florida continue to have some of the highest serious delinquency rates, almost doubling the national level. Default rates remain elevated in the Chicago and Baltimore metro areas as well."
The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in May were Florida (104,000), Michigan (46,000), Texas (33,000), California (28,000) and Ohio (27,000). On the other end of the spectrum, the District of Columbia (105) joined South Dakota (19), North Dakota (326), Wyoming (498) and West Virginia (500) in having the lowest number of completed foreclosures.
Despite this, the District of the Columbia had one of the highest foreclosure inventories as a percentage of all mortgaged homes at 2.4%, likely owing to its relatively small size. The other states in this category were New Jersey (4.9%), New York (3.7%), Florida (2.9%) and Hawaii (2.5%). Alaska had the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes at 0.3%.
