Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
The number of foreclosures completed in December fell 40% from a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic.
There were a total of 21,000 completed foreclosures in December, down from 36,000 the year before, CoreLogic said in a news release. The national foreclosure inventory was 329,000 in December, representing a 30% drop from 467,000 homes in 2015.
The foreclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes lost to foreclosure, CoreLogic said. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 6.5 million completed foreclosures nationally, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 8.6 million homes lost to foreclosure.
Overall, 0.8% of all homes with a mortgage were in foreclosure in December, down from 1.2% the previous year.
The number of mortgages in serious delinquency, which CoreLogic defines as 90 days or more past due including loans in foreclosure or REO, fell by 19.4% year over year to 1 million mortgages, which equates to 2.6% of all mortgaged properties. This is the lowest number of homes in serious delinquency since August 2007, but some parts of the country were experiencing more defaults than others.
"While the decline in serious delinquency has been geographically broad, some oil-producing markets have shown the effects of low oil prices on the housing market," Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a news release. "Serious delinquency rates rose in Louisiana, Wyoming and North Dakota, reflecting the weakness in oil production."
In separate news, CoreLogic also revealed that its Chief Executive Office and President Anand Nallathambi is taking a temporary medical leave of absence from the company. During Nallathambi’s absence, Chief Operating Officer Frank Martell will serve as interim president and CEO, the company said.
