by Calculated Risk on 4/14/2015 03:34:00 PM

From CoreLogic: Press Release and National Foreclosure Report

CoreLogic® ... today released its February 2015 National Foreclosure Report which shows that the foreclosure inventory declined by 27.3 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 15.7 percent from February 2014. According to CoreLogic data, there were 39,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in February 2015, down from 46,000 in February 2014 and representing a decrease of 67 percent from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010. ...

CoreLogic also reports the number of mortgages in serious delinquency declined by 19.3 percent from February 2014 to February 2015 with 1.5 million mortgages, or 4 percent, in serious delinquency (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO). This is the lowest delinquency rate since June 2008. On a month-over-month basis, the number of seriously delinquent mortgages declined by 1.1 percent.

As of February 2015 the national foreclosure inventory included approximately 553,000 homes compared to 761,000 homes in February 2014. The foreclosure inventory as of February 2015 represented 1.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 1.9 percent in February 2014.
...
“The number of homes in foreclosure proceedings fell by 27 percent from a year ago and stands at about one-third of what it was at the trough of the housing cycle,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. “While the drop in the share of mortgages in foreclosure to 1.4 percent is a welcome sign of continued recovery in the housing market, the share remains more than double the 0.6 percent average foreclosure rate that we saw during 2000-2004.”

A couple of points: 1) Foreclosures are still an obstacle to new single family construction in some areas, and 2) Foreclosure inventory is still more than double the normal level.  But this is moving the correct direction (fewer foreclosures and fewer delinquencies).