The stock of distressed assets continues to decline nationally as foreclosure inventory is down 23% relative to a year ago, according to the latest figures from CoreLogic.
Through March, nearly 1.1 million homes were in some stage of foreclosure, compared to 1.5 million as of this time period last year. On a monthly basis, foreclosure inventory was down 1.9% from February 2013.
As of March, CoreLogic said
Florida had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes with 9.7%, followed by New Jersey at 7.3%, New York at 5%, and Maine and Illinois round out the top five, both at 4.4%.
Despite the overall foreclosure inventory falling, more foreclosures were completed in March than the prior month. The Irvine, Calif.-based analytic firm said there were 55,000 foreclosures finalized in March which is 3,000 more than February.
The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures over the last 12 months ending in March 2013 were Florida (103,000 foreclosures), California (83,000), Michigan (70,000), Texas (53,000) and Georgia (48,000). According to CoreLogic, these five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures throughout the country.
Prior to the housing market decline that started in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006. Also, since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.2 million homes lost to foreclosure, CoreLogic said.
However, the monthly numbers are still down on an annual basis by 16%, in which 66,000 homes were foreclosed upon in March 2012. CoreLogic said foreclosures have declined year-over-year across the U.S. for 17 consecutive months.
“Although we still have more than a million homes in some stage of foreclosure, this trend, combined with rising home prices, is another signal of a gradually improving housing market,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.
