Number of Foreclosed Homes for Sale Drops Dramatically

Foreclosures are casting a much smaller shadow on the national real estate market so far in 2013. In April, U.S. lenders held approximately 1.1 million foreclosed homes compared with 1.5 million in April 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 24%, according to data compiled by CoreLogic, an Irvine, Calif., real estate analytics company.

Those 1.1 million foreclosed homes equals 2.8% of all homes with a mortgage compared with 3.5% in March 2013.

The number of foreclosed homes fell more than 40% in six states and more than 50% in Arizona and California in the first fourth months of 2013.

“Fewer distressed properties combined with improving home prices and a pickup in home purchases are significant signals that the ongoing recovery in the housing and mortgage markets continues to gather steam,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

The number of homeowners losing a property to foreclosure is also dropping, CoreLogic says. There were 52,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in April 2013, down from 62,000 in April 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 16%.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, lenders have foreclosed on approximately 4.4 million U.S. homeowners.

State Foreclosure Rates
5 states with most foreclosures in past year:

• Florida (102,000)

• California (79,000)

• Michigan (68,000)

• Texas (53,000)

• Georgia (47,000)

These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
5 states with fewest foreclosures in past year:

• South Dakota (81)

• District of Columbia (100)

• North Dakota (461)

• Hawaii (466)

• West Virginia (527)

5 states with highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes:

• Florida (9.5%)

• New Jersey (7.4%)

• New York (5.1%)

• Maine (4.4%)

• Nevada (4.3%)

5 states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes:

• Wyoming (0.5%),

• Alaska (0.6%)

• North Dakota (0.7%)

• Nebraska (0.8%)

• Virginia (0.9%)

Source: HouseLogic.com