Foreclosures Held Steady in May | Pound Ridge NY Homes

Though the level of completed foreclosures remains high, it is down 27 percent from a peak of 1.1 million in 2010 according to the latest data from CoreLogic.  Inventories at the national level remain the same as a year ago.

There were more than 819,000 completed foreclosures over the past year, or an average of 2,440 completed foreclosures every day over the last 12 months. The national foreclosure inventory levels remained steady at around 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage. The national foreclosure inventory in May 2012 was virtually the same as the 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in May 2011 and 1.4 million, or 3.4 percent, in April 2012. The foreclosure inventory is the share of all mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process.

However, there have been dramatic shifts the state level inventories. Nevada, Arizona and Michigan each experienced at least a 20-percent decline in the foreclosure inventory from a year ago. While foreclosure inventories in most states are declining, the foreclosure inventory is still rising in many judicial states, such as Hawaii, New York and Connecticut.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in May 2012 were: California (133,000), Florida (92,000), Michigan (60,000), Texas (58,000) and Georgia (57,000). These five states account for 48.8 percent of all completed foreclosures nationally. The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in May 2012 were: South Dakota (48), District of Columbia (74), North Dakota (547), West Virginia (620) and Hawaii (623).

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (11.9 percent), New Jersey (6.6 percent), Illinois (5.3 percent), New York (5.0 percent) and Nevada (4.9 percent). The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory were: Wyoming (0.7 percent), Alaska (0.8 percent), North Dakota (0.8 percent), Nebraska (1.0 percent) and South Dakota (1.3 percent).