The five states with highest and lowest foreclosure homes in USA: CoreLogic

There were 48,000 completed foreclosures nationally across the United States in March 2014, down from 53,000 in March 2013, an annual decrease of 10%, according to CoreLogic, the leading global property information, analytics and data provider. 

But completed foreclosures were up 5.9% from the 45,000 reported in February 2014.

As a basis of comparison, before the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been five million completed foreclosures across the country.

And as of March 2014, 720,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.1 million in March 2013, a year- over-year decrease of 37%.

The foreclosure inventory as of March represented 1.8% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.8% in March 2013.

The foreclosure inventory was down 5.1% from February 2014, representing the 29th month of year-over- year declines.

“The inventory of homes in foreclosure and serious delinquency status are back to 2008 levels, yet remain elevated from a historical perspective,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

“While getting healthier, the housing market is a long way from being fully recovered.

“The pathway to a full recovery in housing is proving to be a very long one, but lower distressed stock levels are one clear indicator that we continue to make slow-but-steady progress,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

It was pointed out that most states have made good progress clearing their foreclosure inventories but states that have a longer judicial foreclosure process such as Florida, New Jersey and New York, continue to struggle with elevated distressed stock inventories.

Some 36 states show declines in year-over-year foreclosure inventory of greater than 30% with Arizona, California and Utah experiencing declines greater than 50%.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in March 2014 were Florida (122,000), Michigan (49,000), Texas (39,000), California (34,000) and Georgia (33,000).These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

The five states (including the District of Columbia) with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in March 2014 were the District of Columbia (57), North Dakota (414), West Virginia (516), Hawaii (683) and Wyoming (714).

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were New Jersey (6.0%), Florida (5.8%), New York (4.6%), Maine (3.2%) and Hawaii (3.1%).

The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Alaska (0.4%), Wyoming (0.5%), North Dakota (0.5%), Nebraska (0.5%) and Minnesota (0.6%).