Michigan foreclosures are finally showing a slow steady drop, an MLive article reported. The state recorded 74,000 foreclosures between 2011 and 2012, ranking the third highest in the country.

“Michigan was hit earlier and harder and it is taking us longer to recover,” Neeta Delaney, the director of the Michigan Foreclosure Task Force said. “Since the beginning of 2005, due to the crisis, Michigan has lost half-a-million homes and that’s nearly twice as many homes that were lost in Katrina.”

She added nationwide the number of mortgage foreclosures has decreased, but it’s taking Michigan longer to catch up with the unemployment rate still high.