The inventory of homes in foreclosure fell in November to the lowest level since November 2007, according to a report from CoreLogic, a global property information company.
The 2015 National Foreclosure Report shows that foreclosure inventory in November declined by 21.8% and completed foreclosures fell by 18.8% compared with a year earlier. The report also showed that the number of completed foreclosures nationwide fell year-over-year to 33,000 in November from 41,000 a year earlier.
The number of completed foreclosures in November was down 71.6% from a peak of 117,657 in September 2010, CoreLogic’s report noted. Foreclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes lost to foreclosure.
CoreLogic’s report noted that as of November, foreclosure inventory totaled approximately 448,000, or 1.2%, of all homes with a mortgage compared with 573,000 homes, or 1.5%, a year earlier.
"After peaking at 3.6% in January 2011, the foreclosure rate currently stands at 1.2% - a remarkable improvement," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "While there are still pockets of areas with high foreclosure activity, 30 states have foreclosure rates below the national average which is evidence of the solid improvement."
CoreLogic also reports that the number of mortgages in serious delinquency, which CoreLogic defines as 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure or REO, declined by 21.7% from November 2014 to November 2015, to 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.3%, in this category.
According to CoreLogic, the serious delinquency rate is the lowest since December 2007.
"Tight post-crash underwriting standards coupled with much improved economic and housing market fundamentals have combined to push new mortgage delinquencies to 15-year-lows," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Although judicial states will likely continue to lag, given current trends, it is reasonable to expect a continued and significant drop in the rate of serious delinquencies and foreclosure starts in 2016."
