CoreLogic, a leading residential property information, analytics and services provider, today released its September National Foreclosure Report which provides data on completed U.S. foreclosures and the national foreclosure inventory. According to CoreLogic, there were 51,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in September 2013, down from 84,000 in September 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 39 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were virtually unchanged, decreasing a scant 0.7 percent, from 51,000* reported in August.

As a basis of comparison, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. 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 4.6 million completed foreclosures across the country.

As of September 2013, approximately 902,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in September 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 33 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from August 2013 to September 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of September 2013 represented 2.3 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.2 percent in September 2012.

“The foreclosure inventory continues to decline, now standing at an early 2009 level,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Just over 900,000 properties remain in the inventory, two thirds of them in judicial states where the foreclosure process is typically slower. Consequently, the pace of overall improvement in the inventory will slow down and distressed assets will cast a long shadow over housing markets in states with judicial foreclosure.”

“The number of seriously delinquent mortgages continues to drop across the country at a rapid rate with every state showing year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “We're not out of the woods yet, but these are encouraging signs for a return to a healthier housing market in the U.S.”

Highlights as of September 2013:

• The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in September 2013 were: Florida (115,000), California (52,000), Texas (43,000), Michigan (40,000) and Georgia (39,000).These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.
• The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in September 2013 were: District of Columbia (52), North Dakota (454), Hawaii (490), West Virginia (521) and Wyoming (719).
• The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (7.4 percent), New Jersey (6.5 percent), New York (4.8 percent), Maine (4.0 percent) and Connecticut (3.7 percent).
• The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Wyoming (0.4 percent), Alaska (0.6 percent), North Dakota (0.7 percent), Nebraska (0.7 percent) and Colorado (0.7 percent).

*August data was revised. Revisions are standard, and to ensure accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates newly released data to provide updated results.