IRVINE, Calif.—In January, the foreclosure inventory declined 33.2% and completed foreclosures declined 22.5% from one year earlier, according to the latest National Foreclosure Report from CoreLogic.
The report also shows there were 43,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in January 2015, down from 55,000 in January 2014 and representing a decrease of 63% from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010. Completed foreclosures have declined every month for the past 37 consecutive months.
On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were down 14.7% from the 37,000 reported in December of 2014. CoreLogic said that as a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.
Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure, the company said. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.5 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 7.0 million homes lost to foreclosure.
As of January 2015 the national foreclosure inventory was down 33.2% year over year, and approximately 549,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure. This compares to 822,000 homes in January 2014 and represents 39 consecutive months of year-over-year declines. The foreclosure inventory as of January 2015 made up 1.4% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.0% in January 2014. On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down 2.7% from December 2014. The current foreclosure rate of 1.4% is back to March 2008 levels.