May Foreclosure Inventories Highest in New York City, Miami, Las Vegas

In the month of April, 38,000 U.S. home foreclosures were completed, up 5.5% month over month and down 6.9% from a total of 41,000 in May 2015, according to CoreLogic. The research firm notes that the current foreclosure inventory totals 1% of all homes with a mortgage in the United States, down from 1.3% in May of last year.

The number of U.S. homes currently in some stage of foreclosure totals approximately 390,000, compared with 517,000 in May 2015. That represents a decline in the national foreclosure inventory of 24.5%, compared with May a year ago.

The four states and the District of Columbia with the largest foreclosed inventory as a percentage of mortgaged properties are New Jersey (3.6%), New York (3.2%), Hawaii (2.1%), D.C. (2.0%) and Florida (1.9%). The five states with the lowest inventories of foreclosed properties are Minnesota (0.3%), Alaska (0.3%), Utah (0.3%), Arizona (0.3%) and Colorado (0.3%).

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in the past 12 months were Florida (63,000), Michigan (45,000), Texas (27,000), Ohio (23,000) and California (23,000). The five with the fewest foreclosures in the prior 12 months through May were District of Columbia (139), North Dakota (323), West Virginia (494), Alaska (648) and Montana (690).

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CoreLogic’s chief economist said:

The foreclosure rate fell to 1 percent in May, which is twice the long-term average of 0.5 percent. However, this masks the underlying progress at the state level. Twenty-nine states had foreclosure rates below the national average, and all but North Dakota experienced declines in their foreclosure rate compared to the prior year.

The company’s CEO added:

Delinquency and foreclosure rates continue to drop as we experience the benefits of a combination of tight underwriting, job and income growth and a steady rise in home prices. We expect these factors to remain in place for the remainder of this year and for delinquency and foreclosure rates to decline even further.

Of the 10 largest U.S. metro areas, the foreclosure inventory was highest in the New York area, at 3%. The Miami metro area’s foreclosure inventory totaled 2.5%, and the Las Vegas area had the third-highest total at 1.4%. The lowest totals were posted in the San Francisco (0.1%) area and in Denver (0.2%).

Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon and Maryland all posted year-over-year declines of more than 30% in foreclosure inventory. Florida’s foreclosure inventory has fallen 37% in the past 12 months and Minnesota’s has dropped by nearly 35%. Tennessee’s foreclosure inventory fell by 34.5%, just ahead of Michigan’s drop of 34.3%. The foreclosure inventory fell by 34% in Nevada.

According to CoreLogic, the current foreclosure rate of 1% is the same as the October 2007 rate and the foreclosure inventory has declined every month for the past 55 months. Before the collapse in the housing market in 2007, the average number of foreclosures completed in a month was 21,000.

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