Foreclosure inventory continues to decrease nationally, down 4.8% in May. That marked 31 consecutive months of year-over-year declines. But as HousingWire reported on Tuesday, the divide between the amount of foreclosures in judicial states and the amount in non-judicial states is massive.
The top non-judicial states, Michigan, Texas and California, recorded a .7%, .7% and .6% foreclosure inventory, with 44,402, 38,649 and 33,940 completed foreclosures in the last 12 months, respectively, according to the latest CoreLogic [CLGX] May National Foreclosure Report.
Meanwhile, the top judicial states, Florida, Ohio and Illinois, posted a 5.2%, 1.7% and 2.4% foreclosure inventory, with 122,059, 28,609 and 21, 558 completed foreclosures in the last 12 months, respectively.
And according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the amount of foreclosure inventory held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Florida has reached a new high, topping the previous peak which was reached at the height of the foreclosure crisis in 2010.
Foreclosures dropped sharply throughout 2011 as banks withdrew cases to correct those foreclosure filings. Foreclosed property holdings at Fannie and Freddie dropped from around 28,000 as of October 2010 to less than 12,000 one year later. Inventories have grown steadily over the last three years, to surpass 30,000 at the end of March.
Many of the properties going back to Fannie and Freddie today are likely mortgages that have been delinquent for a long time, as opposed to newly delinquent borrowers, which would be an arguably bigger concern for the housing market. Florida loans that completed the foreclosure process in the first quarter at Fannie hadn’t made any payments in more than 1,300 days.
As of May 2014, there were approximately 660,000 homes in the U.S. in some stage of foreclosures, compared to 1 million in May 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 37%.
"The pace of completed foreclosures slowed in May compared to last month but I expect this to be a temporary respite," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.
"There is still much more hard work to do to clear the backlog of foreclosed properties. Although difficult, we need to continue to aggressively clear distressed homes to ensure the return of a healthy housing market."
