CoreLogic Reports 41,000 Completed Foreclosures in November 2014

Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.5 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been approximately 7 million homes lost to foreclosure.

As of November 2014, approximately 567,000 homes nationally were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 880,000 in November 2013, a year–over–year decrease of 35.5 percent and representing 37 consecutive months of year–over–year declines. The foreclosure inventory as of November 2014 made up 1.5 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.2 percent in November 2013. On a month–over–month basis, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from October 2014. The current foreclosure rate of 1.5 percent is the lowest inventory level since March 2008.

“The foreclosure rate fell in every state, with only the District of Columbia seeing a small increase,” said Molly Boesel, senior economist. “However, some states still have foreclosure rates of more than twice the national rate. While the national level of foreclosures may normalize in the next two years, there will always be the potential for some pockets of distress in the mortgage market.”

“The number of completed foreclosures over the past twelve months—just under 575,000—are at the lowest level in seven years. This month’s figure of 41,000 foreclosures is in line with levels experienced in the second half of 2007, which was the very beginning of the housing crisis,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. ““At current foreclosure rates, we expect to see the foreclosure inventory in the U.S. to drop below 500,000 homes sometime in the first quarter of 2015 which would be another milestone in the healing of the housing market.”

Highlights as of November 2014:

• November represents 26 consecutive months of double–digit declines in the year–over–year percent change in the foreclose inventory.
• All states posted double–digit declines in foreclosure inventory year over year; but the District of Columbia saw a 17.8 percent increase.
• Thirty–five states showed declines in year–over–year foreclosure inventory of greater than 30 percent, with the largest declines in Florida (–48.1 percent) and Utah (–48.9 percent).
• The national serious delinquency rate was 4.0 percent in November, which is down 22.8 percent from November 2013 and the lowest rate since June 2008.
• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November 2014 were: Florida (118,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (36,000), California (29,000) and Ohio (29,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
• Four states and the District of Columbia experienced the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November 2014: South Dakota (54), District of Columbia (62), North Dakota (298), West Virginia (534) and Wyoming (573).
• Four states and the District of Columbia experienced the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: New Jersey (5.3 percent), New York (4.1 percent), Florida (3.9 percent), Hawaii (2.8 percent) and District of Columbia (2.4 percent).
• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Alaska (0.4 percent), Nebraska (0.4 percent), North Dakota (0.4 percent), Arizona (0.5 percent) and Montana (0.5 percent).

Judicial Foreclosure States Ranking (Ranked by Completed Foreclosures)

Non-Judicial Foreclosure States Ranking (Ranked by Completed Foreclosures)

Foreclosure Data for the Largest Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) (Ranked by Completed Foreclosures)

Figure 1: Number of Mortgaged Homes per Completed Foreclosure

Figure 2: Foreclosure Inventory as of November 2014

Figure 3: Foreclosure Inventory by State Map

For ongoing housing trends and data, visit the CoreLogic Insights Blog: https://www.corelogic.com/blog.

Methodology
The data in this report represents foreclosure activity reported through November 2014.

This report separates state data into judicial versus non–judicial foreclosure state categories. In judicial foreclosure states, lenders must provide evidence to the courts of delinquency in order to move a borrower into foreclosure. In non–judicial foreclosure states, lenders can issue notices of default directly to the borrower without court intervention. This is an important distinction since judicial states, as a rule, have longer foreclosure timelines, thus affecting foreclosure statistics.

A completed foreclosure occurs when a property is auctioned and results in the purchase of the home at auction by either a third party, such as an investor, or by the lender. If the home is purchased by the lender, it is moved into the lender’s real estate owned (REO) inventory. In “foreclosure by advertisement” states, a redemption period begins after the auction and runs for a statutory period, e.g., six months. During that period, the borrower may regain the foreclosed home by paying all amounts due as calculated under the statute. For purposes of this Foreclosure Report, because so few homes are actually redeemed following an auction, it is assumed that the foreclosure process ends in “foreclosure by advertisement” states at the completion of the auction.

The foreclosure inventory represents the number and share of mortgaged homes that have been placed into the process of foreclosure by the mortgage servicer. Mortgage servicers start the foreclosure process when the mortgage reaches a specific level of serious delinquency as dictated by the investor for the mortgage loan. Once a foreclosure is “started,” and absent the borrower paying all amounts necessary to halt the foreclosure, the home remains in foreclosure until the completed foreclosure results in the sale to a third party at auction or the home enters the lender’s REO inventory. The data in this report accounts for only first liens against a property and does not include secondary liens. The foreclosure inventory is measured only against homes that have an outstanding mortgage. Homes with no mortgage liens can never be in foreclosure and are, therefore, excluded from the analysis. Approximately one–third of homes nationally are owned outright and do not have a mortgage. CoreLogic has approximately 85 percent coverage of U.S. foreclosure data.

Source: CoreLogic
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About CoreLogic
CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) is a leading global property information, analytics and data–enabled services provider. The company’s combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 3.5 billion records spanning more than 40 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.

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