[1]Foreclosure metrics were way down across the board again in July 2015, as pre-sale foreclosure inventory dropped to its lowest level since December 2007 and completed foreclosures were down by nearly 25 percent year-over-year, according to CoreLogic [2]'s July 2015 National Foreclosure Report [3] released Tuesday.
Completed foreclosures for July 2015 totaled approximately 38,000, which was a 24.4 percent declined from the previous July's total of 50,000. July 2015's total represented a 68 percent decline from the peak number of completed foreclosures (117,225) reached in September 2010. Completed foreclosures, which are a true measure of homes lost to foreclosure, have totaled 5.8 million nationwide since the financial crisis began in September 2008 and 7.8 million since homeownership rates peaked in Q2 2004, according to CoreLogic. While monthly completed foreclosure totals have been on the steady decline, July's total of 38,000 is still about 80 percent higher than the pre-recession monthly average of 21,000 (from 2000 to 2006).
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Foreclosure inventory, the number of residential homes in any state of foreclosure, dropped by 27.9 percent year-over-year in July 2015, from 650,000 homes (1.7 percent of all residential mortgages) to about 469,000 homes (1.2 percent of all residential mortgages), according to CoreLogic. July 2015's rate of 1.2 percent was the lowest for foreclosure inventory since December 2007.
"Job market gains and home-price appreciation help to push serious delinquency and foreclosure rates lower. The CoreLogic national HPI showed home prices in July rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier, building equity for homeowners," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Further, 2.4 million jobs were created, pushing the unemployment rate down from 6.2 percent in July 2014 to 5.3 percent this July and supporting family income growth for most owners."
"As we enter the final months of 2015, the housing market continues to gather steam buoyed by improving economic conditions and the release of pent up demand for homeownership."
The number of serious delinquencies (residential mortgages 90 days or more overdue or in REO or foreclosure) dropped by 23 percent year-over-year in July 2015 down to 3.4 percent of all mortgages (about 1.3 million mortgages), according to CoreLogic. Like the foreclosure inventory rate, the serious delinquency rate of 3.4 percent for July 2015 was the lowest since December 2007.
"As we enter the final months of 2015, the housing market continues to gather steam buoyed by improving economic conditions and the release of pent up demand for homeownership," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "The recovery in the housing market is also reflected in declining delinquency and foreclosure rates which, to some degree, reflects the progressive clearing of crisis-era loans and the benefits of tighter underwriting standards over the past six years."
Click here [3] to view CoreLogic's complete July 2015 National Foreclosure Report.
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