In the month of September, 36,000 U.S. home foreclosures were completed, down 3.1% month over month and down 7% from a total of 39,000 in September 2015, according to CoreLogic. The research firm notes that the current foreclosure inventory totals 0.9% of all homes with a mortgage in the United States, flat compared with September of last year.

The number of U.S. homes currently in some stage of foreclosure totals approximately 340,000, compared with 493,000 in September 2015. That represents a decline in the national foreclosure inventory of 31.1% compared with September 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 (3.0%), New York (2.7%), Maine (1.8%), Hawaii (1.8%) and D.C. (1.6%). The five states with the lowest inventories of foreclosed properties are Colorado (0.3%), Minnesota (0.3%), Arizona (0.3%), Michigan (0.3%) and Utah (0.3%).

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in the past 12 months were Florida (53,000), Texas (27,000), Michigan (24,000), Ohio (23,000) and Georgia (21,000). The fewest foreclosures in the prior 12 months through September were in the District of Columbia (186), North Dakota (338), West Virginia (447), Alaska (643) and Montana (701).

CoreLogic CEO Anand Nallathambi said:

Completed foreclosures have fallen by a total of more than 100,000 homes during the 12 months prior to September 2016. The decline in foreclosures is one of the drivers in the drop in vacancies, which is positive for homeowners and communities. Heading into 2017 we see that prices, performance and production — the three most important drivers of the real estate market — are all improving.

Of the 10 largest U.S. metro areas, the foreclosure inventory was highest in the New York area, at 2.6%. The Miami metro area’s foreclosure inventory totaled 2.2%, with the Las Vegas metro and Chicago each at 1.2%. The lowest totals were posted in the San Francisco (0.1%) area and in Denver (0.2%).

A total of 21 states posted year-over-year declines of more than 30% in foreclosure inventory for the month of September. Washington’s foreclosure inventory has fallen 41.6% in the past 12 months, and Florida’s has dropped by 40.4%.

According to CoreLogic, the current foreclosure rate of 0.9% is the same as the August 2007 rate, and the foreclosure inventory has declined every month for the past 59 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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