Foreclosures decline nationwide to lowest level since 2007
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Foreclosures nationwide continued to fall steadily last month, adding more momentum to the housing recovery.
Completed foreclosures fell 19% year over year to 54,000, the lowest level since September 2007, according to real estate data provider CoreLogic. They dropped 7% from January.
Meanwhile, the number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline decreased as well. About 1.2 million homes were in some stage of the foreclosure process in February, a 21% drop from February 2012 and a 1.8% decline from January.
“The drop in delinquencies and foreclosure starts will help support a resurgence in the home purchase market this year and next,” CoreLogic Chief Executive Anand Nallathambi said in a statement.
Southern California’s housing recovery: An interactive map
Although a drop in foreclosures has helped boost home prices nationwide, the rate of completed foreclosures remains historically high. The Irvine firm said that completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 a month from 2000 to 2006.
Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, roughly 4.2 million homes have been foreclosed on nationwide, CoreLogic said.
About 2.8% of all homes with a mortgage were in some stage of the foreclosure process in February, compared with 3.5% in February 2012.
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