Foreclosure Inventory Down 27%

CoreLogic released its May National Foreclosure Report with a supplement featuring quarterly shadow inventory data as of April 2013.

According to CoreLogic, the U.S. had 52,000 completed foreclosures in May 2013, down from 71,000 one year earlier – a year-over-year decrease of 27 percent. On a month-over-month basis, however, completed foreclosures increased 3.5 percent – from 50,000 in April 2013 to 52, in May.

Florida, however, continued to lead the nation in both completed foreclosures and number of homes in its foreclosure inventory. In the year ending in May, the state recorded 103,000 completed foreclosures compared to second-place California with 76,000. Michigan (64,000), Texas (51,000) and Georgia (47,000) rounded out the top five. The five states, added together made up almost half of all U.S. foreclosures.

The Sunshine State, at 8.8 percent, also ranked No. 1 in foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes. The remaining states in the top five for foreclosure inventory include, New Jersey (6 percent), New York (4.8 percent), Maine (4.1 percent) and Connecticut (4.1 percent).

Nationally, CoreLogic says that the total residential shadow inventory as of April was fewer than 2 million units – a supply of 5.3 months and down 34 percent from its peak in 2010. The shadow inventory is also down 18 percent for the year.

As of May 2013, about 1 million U.S. homes were in some stage of foreclosure (the foreclosure inventory) compared to 1.4 million in May 2012 – a year-over-year decrease of 29 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent.

At the end of May the number of seriously delinquent mortgages – those at least 90 days or more past due – hit its lowest level in four-and-a-half years.

“The stock of seriously delinquent homes, which is the main driver of shadow inventory, is at the lowest level since December 2008,” says Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Over the last year it has decreased in 42 states by double-digit figures, resulting in rapid declines in shadow inventory for the first quarter of 2013.”

The value of shadow inventory was $314 billion as of April 2013, down from $386 billion in April 2012 and down from $320 billion six months earlier.

© 2013 Florida Realtors®