Foreclosure Inventory Falls 24% from Year Ago

By: Esther Cho, DSNews.com

Foreclosure inventory continued to shrink in April, with the number of homes in some stage of the foreclosure process down 24 percent year-over-year, according to data from CoreLogic.

About 1.1 million homes sat in foreclosure inventory in April compared to 1.5 million properties a year ago, CoreLogic reported. Foreclosure inventory also displayed a month-over-month decrease, falling 2 percent from March to April.

At the same time, the overall share of mortgaged homes in foreclosure inventory declined to 2.8 percent in April from 3.5 percent in March.

The data provider also reported the number of homes lost to foreclosure decreased 16 percent year-over-year in April to 52,000. Compared to March, the number of homes lost to foreclosure remained unchanged.

Prior to the crisis, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006.

“The shadow of foreclosure and distress continues to fade, with the annualized sum of completed foreclosures having declined for 17 straight months,” noted Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a release. “Six states have year-over-year declines in the foreclosure inventory of more than 40 percent, and in Arizona and California the year-over-year decline is more than 50 percent.”

In April, Florida led as the state with the most foreclosure inventory, followed by New Jersey (7.4 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Maine (4.4 percent) and Nevada (4.3 percent).

Florida also ranked highest for completed foreclosures. According to CoreLogic, Florida has seen 102,000 completed foreclosures over a one-year period ending in April. California came in second with 79,000 completed foreclosures, with Michigan (68,000), Texas (53,000), and Georgia (47,000) rounding out the top five.

Since September 2008, an estimated 4.4 million homes have been lost to foreclosure.