Number of foreclosures continues to decrease

Homes in foreclosure, as well as seriously delinquent mortgages, continued the trend of decreasing, now reaching levels as low as they were in October 2007, according to CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report .

“The foreclosure rate fell to 1 percent in May, which is twice the long-term average of .5 percent,” said Frank Northaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. “However, this masks the underlying progress at the state level. Twenty-nine states had foreclosure rates below the national average, and all but North Dakota experienced declines in their foreclosure rate compared to the prior year.”

The report also said that the foreclosure inventory was down from 41,000 to 38,000 foreclosures, or 3 percent, in May 2016 compared to May 2015, and has been declining for 55 months year-to-year. The seriously delinquent rate is at 2.8 percent, the lowest level since October 2007, the report stated. The foreclosure rate is the same as October 2007 at 1 percent of all homes with a mortgage.

Compared to May 2015, 127,000 less homes are in some state of foreclosure, a decrease of 24.5 percent in one year.

New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Maine and Washington, D.C. had the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of mortgaged homes, the report said.  On the other hand, Minnesota, Alaska, Colorado, Utah and Arizona had the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of mortgaged homes.

Ninety-two percent of states posted a year-to-year, double-digit decrease in foreclosures.

In Pennsylvania, the foreclosure rate is 1.3 percent, a decrease of 24.2 percent compared to last year. Nearly 19,000 homes have been foreclosed between May 2015 and May 2016, and the serious delinquency rate is 3.6 percent.