Recovery Finds ‘Footing’ as Foreclosures Fall: CoreLogic

Completed foreclosures continued their progressive decline, and foreclosure inventory fell to its lowest level since April 2010, ""CoreLogic"":http://www.corelogic.com/ reported Thursday.

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In August 2012, 57,000 homes were lost to foreclosure, down from 58,000 in July and 75,000 a year ago, according to the report. The yearly decrease represents a 24 percent decline.

""August marks the fourth month in a row there were fewer completed foreclosures, which is more evidence that the housing industry is finding its footing,"" said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, 3.8 million homes have been lost to foreclosure.

Fewer homes with a mortgage were also in the foreclosure process in August, with foreclosure inventory numbering about 1.3 million homes, or 3.2 percent of all homes with a mortgage, down from last year's 1.4 million homes, CoreLogic reported. Foreclosure inventory remained unchanged on a monthly basis.

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Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, gave credit to foreclosure prevention efforts for the decline.

""The reduction in foreclosure volumes is to some degree being facilitated by the rising popularity of alternative resolution methods, such as short sales and loan modifications,"" said Nallathambi.

While the national numbers are down, certain states are still seeing a high number of foreclosures, with five states accounting for 48.1 percent of all completed foreclosures, according to the report.

California led among the five states with 110,000 completed foreclosures over a one-year period ending in August. Florida ranked second, with 92,000 foreclosures, followed by Michigan (62,000), Texas (58,000) and Georgia (55,000).

South Dakota, however, only saw 25 completed foreclosures. Other states with fewer foreclosures included Hawaii (435), North Dakota (564) and Maine (612).

While California had the most completed foreclosures, Florida took the lead for having the highest percentage of mortgaged homes in foreclosure inventory, leading with 11 percent.

New Jersey came in second with 6.5 percent, followed by New York (5.2 percent), Illinois (4.8 percent) and Nevada (4.6 percent). Nevada is the only non-judicial state among the top five.

Four states had less than 1 percent of homes in foreclosure inventory: Wyoming (0.5 percent), Alaska (0.8 percent), North Dakota (0.8 percent), and Nebraska (0.9 percent).