IRVINE, Calif.—There were 39,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in December 2014, down from 46,000 in December 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 13.7% and a decrease of 66% from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010, according to CoreLogic’s December National Foreclosure Report.
The 12-month sum of completed foreclosures for 2014, at 563,294, is at its lowest point since November 2007 when it was 589,570 and has declined every month for the past 34 consecutive months, the company said. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were down 4.9% from the 41,000 reported in November 2014. 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.
CoreLogic said that completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. 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 seven-million homes lost to foreclosure.
As of December 2014, approximately 552,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 840,000 in December 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 34.3% and representing 38 consecutive months of year-over-year declines. The foreclosure inventory as of December 2014 made up 1.4% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.1% in December 2013. On a month-over-month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down 2.9% from November 2014. The current foreclosure rate of 1.4% is back to March 2008 levels.
Highlights as of December 2014:
- All states posted double-digit year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory with the exception of West Virginia, which experienced a 9.5% decrease. The District of Columbia experienced a 21.7% increase.
- Thirty-three states showed declines in year-over-year foreclosure inventory of greater than 30%, with the largest declines in Utah (-48.8%) and Florida (-48.6%).
- The national serious delinquency rate, defined as 90 days or more past due, was 4.1% in December 2014, the lowest rate since June 2008. The level of serious delinquencies in December was 21.6% lower than in December 2013.