CoreLogic's latest National Foreclosure Report for March found that foreclosure inventory is down 5.1 percent from February. The percentage of homes seriously delinquent on their mortgage fell to 4.7 percent, the first time the rate has been this low since October 2008. Additionally, foreclosure inventory is back to November 2008 levels the company said. Completed foreclosures for the month totaled 48,000, an increase of 5.9 percent from February, but fell 10 percent from 53,000 recorded foreclosures the previous year.
Nationally, the inventory of homes in foreclosure is down 3.1 percent from February. March's inventory reflects a yearly drop of 37 percent, from 1.1 million homes in foreclosure in March 2013 to 720,000 as of March 2014. Foreclosure inventory has recognized a year-over-year decline of 29 consecutive months. States with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of mortgaged homes include New Jersey, Florida, New York, Maine, and Hawaii.
Home prices performed more or less as expected in February, with annual growth rates continuing to slow, according to the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Considered one of the pre-eminent measures among home price indicators, the indices showed prices among 20 of the nation's biggest markets grew 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, matching January's rate of growth. Unadjusted, the index was unchanged month-over-month, though even that was an improvement over a 0.1 percent drop to start the year.