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Foreclosure starts dropped by 15 percent month-over-month in February, down to just below 80,000, the lowest level since November 2014 and their third lowest total for any month in at least seven years, according to Black Knight's First look at Mortgage Data for February 2015 released today. This decline in foreclosure starts came just one month after the number swelled to more than 94,000 in January, the highest level since December 2013. Analysts concluded at that time that the spike in foreclosure starts for January was likely due to seasonality and not a forming trend.
In addition to the decline foreclosure starts experienced in February, a couple of other foreclosure statistics dropped to pre-recession levels for the month. Foreclosure inventory fell by nearly 30 percent year-over-year from 1 point 1 million to below 800 thousand for the first time since December 2007. Another number that experienced a large decline was the delinquency rate, which fell by 10 percent year-over-year down to 5.36 percent, representing about 2.7 million properties – the lowest level since summer 2007.
Freddie Mac is selling three pools of non-performing residential home loans with an unpaid principal balance of 1 billion dollars. The loans will reportedly be sold in three pools totaling $660 million, $249 million, and $125 million. Offers are due for the loans on March 24. Many of the loans being sold are two years or more delinquent, according to a spokesman from Freddie Mac. This will be the GSE's third sale of non-performing loans in the last eight months; the first two sales totaled $1.1 billion combined.
