Foreclosures are continuing their exodus from the housing market, with foreclosure inventory falling 30 percent and foreclosure completions falling 40 percent in 2016, according to CoreLogic’s December 2016 National Foreclosure Report. Foreclosure completions totaled 21,000 in December, down from 36,000 one year prior and 82 percent from its recession peak.
Mortgage delinquencies in December also fell, 19.4 percent from one year prior. One million mortgages are in “serious” delinquency, or 90 days or more past due—the lowest amount since August 2007.
“Foreclosure and delinquency trends continue to head in the right direction powered principally by increasing employment levels, stringent underwriting standards and higher home prices over the past few years,” says Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “We expect to see further declines in delinquency and foreclosure rates in 2017. As the foreclosure inventory diminishes, we must look ahead and tackle tight housing supply and growing affordability issues, which are keeping many potential homebuyers, especially first-time buyers, on the sidelines.”
Foreclosure inventory stands at 329,000, or 0.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage. Foreclosure inventory stood at 467,000, or 1.2 percent of all homes with a mortgage, in December 2015. New Jersey (2.8 percent), New York (2.7 percent), Maine (1.8 percent), Hawaii (1.7 percent) and the District of Columbia (1.6 percent) had the most foreclosure inventory in December 2016. Colorado (0.2 percent), Minnesota, Utah, Arizona, and California (all 0.3 percent) had the least.
At 45,000, Florida had the most foreclosure completions in December 2016, followed by Michigan (30,000), Texas (24,000), Ohio (21,000) and California (19,000). The least foreclosure completions were in North Dakota (182), the District of Columbia (254), West Virginia (312), Montana (630) and Alaska (668).
Source: CoreLogic
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