In the month of February, 39,000 U.S. home foreclosures were completed, down 11.6% month over month and down 15.7% from a total of 46,000 in January 2014, according to CoreLogic. The research firm notes that the current foreclosure inventory totals 1.4% of all homes with a mortgage in the United States, down from 1.9% in February of 2014.

The number of U.S. homes currently in some stage of foreclosure totals 553,000, compared with 761,000 in February 2014. That represents a decline in the national foreclosure inventory of 27.3% from February a year ago.

The four states and the District of Columbia with the largest inventories of foreclosed inventory as a percentage of mortgaged properties are New Jersey (5.3%), New York (4.0%), Florida (3.4%), Hawaii (2.8%) and D.C. (2.6%). The five states with the lowest inventories of foreclosed properties are Alaska (0.3%), Nebraska (0.4%), Montana (0.5%), North Dakota (0.5%) and Minnesota (0.5%).

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in the past 12 months were Florida (110,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (34,000), California (30,000) and Georgia (28,000). The fewest foreclosures in the 12 months through February were found in South Dakota (15), District of Columbia (83), North Dakota (334), West Virginia (506) and Wyoming (526).

CoreLogic’s CEO said:

The foreclosure inventory dropped year-over-year in all but two states. The foreclosure rates in judicial foreclosure states are beginning to pick up and remain higher than in non-judicial states. What’s encouraging is that fewer Americans are seriously delinquent in paying their mortgages which in turn is reducing the foreclosure inventory across the country as a whole.

According to CoreLogic, the current foreclosure rate of 1.4% is the lowest since March of 2008, and the foreclosure inventory has declined every month for the past 40 months. Foreclosures have dropped by 67% from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.6 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since home ownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 7.7 million homes lost to foreclosure.

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