Foreclosures are becoming less and less of a commonality throughout the nation, and according to CoreLogic’s August 2016 National Foreclosure Report, foreclosure inventory and completed foreclosures both dipped in August compared with the previous year.
Completed foreclosures in the U.S. decreased from 64,000 in August 2015 to 37,000 in August 2016, the report shows. This annual fall marks a 69 percent dip from the highest peak reported in September 2010 of 118,221.
“Foreclosure inventory fell by 30 percent from the previous year, the largest year-over-year decline since January 2015,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Dr. Frank Nothaft said in a statement. “The large decline in the distressed inventory has been one of the drivers of steady home price growth, which helps Americans increase their home equity to support increased spending or cushion future economic risk.”
As of August, 0.9 percent of national housing inventory was comprised of foreclosures, a total of 351,000. During the same month last year, this figure was at 499,000 foreclosures.
The month-over-month increase in foreclosure activity was reported at 7.7 percent over the 34,000 foreclosures completed in July 2016. The inventory of foreclosures, however, was a 3.2 percent dip over the previous month.
“Foreclosure rates and serious delinquency continued to trend down in August as real estate markets across many parts of the U.S. exhibit strong demand growth and rising prices,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “With the foreclosure inventory now under 1 percent nationally, the need to boost single-family housing stocks through new construction will become more acute in the coming months and years.”
New Jersey (3.2 percent), New York (2.9 percent), Maine (1.8 percent), Hawaii (1.8 percent) and the District of Columbia (1.8 percent) had the highest foreclosure inventory rate in the nation. The highest number of foreclosures completed were reported in Florida (55,000), Texas (27,000), Ohio (23,000), California (22,000) and Georgia (21,000), which together comprised about 35 percent of the total completed foreclosures.
On a metro-level basis, New York-New Jersey-White Plains had 2.8 percent of the total inventory stock made up of foreclosed properties in August. The area saw a 27.6 percent dip in foreclosure inventory year-over-year, bringing the total number of foreclosures to 6,366. The seriously delinquent rate dipped 21.6 percent annually in August, to a total of 5.2 percent of homeowners in the red.
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Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall saw 2.3 percent of its inventory comprised of foreclosures and a total of 5,678 properties, marking a 36.9 percent dip annually in the metro. A 28.3 percent decrease was reported in serious delinquency, bringing the total of homeowners in trouble to 5.8 percent.
The Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metro had a total of 1.2 percent of the housing stock comprised of foreclosures. Annually, this was a dip of 32.5 percent, to a total of 6,366 completed foreclosures. Serious delinquency was at 3.7 percent in the Chicagoland area, which was a 22.9 percent dip year-over-year.
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land saw a 0.4 percent rate of foreclosure inventory — a 22.5 percent decrease annually, to a total of 5,426 homes. The city saw a 6.1 percent dip year-over-year in serious delinquency in August.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria saw a total of 4,384 completed foreclosures, which was a 30.2 percent dip annually to the 0.8 percent foreclosure inventory rate reported in August. The metro area saw a seriously delinquent rate of 2.6 percent, which was a 15.8 percent decrease.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale had a 0.4 percent rate of foreclosure, which was a 29.9 percent decrease to 3,679 total completed foreclosures. Delinquency dropped 20.1 percent annually in August, to 1.6 percent.
San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco saw its serious delinquency rate drop 27 percent to 0.5 percent, while there were just 170 completed foreclosures in the 12 months ending in August. The foreclosure inventory rate in San Francisco’s metro area was 0.1 percent, which was an annual decrease of 32.1 percent.
