Foreclosures Fall to Prerecession Levels

Research firm CoreLogic Inc. (NYSE: CLGX) has released its latest data on foreclosures in the United States for the month of June. The firm reports 60,000 completed foreclosures in June, compared with 80,000 in June of 2011. The June figure is flat with the previous month’s revised data.

CoreLogic’s president/CEO said:

The decline in the flow of completed foreclosures to pre-financial crisis levels is more welcome news pointing to an emerging housing market recovery.

The company also noted that foreclosure inventory may begin to rise again because sales of foreclosed properties are declining while inventories are remaining stable.

For the 12 months ending in June, the five states with the highest number of foreclosures are California (125,000), Florida (91,000), Michigan (58,000), Texas (56,000) and Georgia (55,000). The five states with the lowest number of foreclosures are South Dakota (39), the District of Columbia (81), Hawaii (449), North Dakota (565) and Maine (625).

Fewer foreclosed homes have the effect of raising prices for existing home sales and, to some extent, increasing the demand for new home building. The key figure though is inventory, which in June amounted to 1.4 million homes, down from 1.5 million in June 2011.

Paul Ausick