Foreclosures continue to wane

Foreclosures have again seen a massive decline as the housing market performs strongly

Foreclosures have again seen a massive decline as the housing market performs strongly.

New figures from CoreLogic show July foreclosures fell 8.6% from June, to 49,000 down from 53,000. Completed foreclosures are now down 25% year-over-year.

Foreclosure inventory has also dropped, falling 32% year-over-year. CoreLogic said as of July 2013, around 940,000 homes were at some stage of foreclosure, compared to 1.4m in July 2012. Foreclosure inventory represented 2.4% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 3.4% at the same time last year.

Five states represented nearly half of all foreclosures nationally, with Fla., Calif., Mich., Texas and Ga., experiencing the highest number of completed foreclosures.

“As the housing market continues to recover, the foreclosure inventory is declining quickly, down by 32% from a year ago,” CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming said. “Continued strength in the housing market will contribute to our outlook for ongoing improvement in the stock of distressed assets through the end of this year.”