The number of completed foreclosures in January rose 11.8 percent month over month to 48,000, but was down 19 percent from a year ago, CoreLogic reported.
The data aggregator’s latest National Foreclosure Report also found that the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure in January dropped 33 percent year over year to 794,000 homes.
Though CoreLogic’s numbers show significant improvement on an annual basis, foreclosure activity and inventory remain far above healthy levels.
Completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006, more than twice January’s level. And Mark Fleming, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said that the number of homes in foreclosure is still much higher than it should be.
“We are recovering, but we’re not there yet,” Fleming said. “For every completed foreclosure, there are 954 mortgaged homes in nonjudicial foreclosure states and 896 mortgaged homes in judicial foreclosure states. Although this is a big improvement relative to the height of the foreclosure crisis, a healthier ratio would be one for every 2,000.”
Source: CoreLogic
