Completed foreclosures increased monthly in September, however it could be a good sign as foreclosure inventory actually decreased, showing that the market is clearing out the current foreclosures faster than new foreclosures begin.
Foreclosure inventory decreased by 31.1% annually in September and by 3.1% monthly, according to the September 2016 National Foreclosure Report from CoreLogic, a property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider.
On the other hand, completed foreclosures, while still decreasing 7% from last year, they increased 5.2% from last month’s 34,000 to 36,000 in September.
Foreclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process while completed foreclosures are the total number of homes lost to foreclosure.
“Completed foreclosures have fallen by a total of more than 100,000 homes during the 12 months prior to September 2016," CoreLogic President and CEO Anand Nallathambi said.
“The decline in foreclosures is one of the drivers in the drop in vacancies, which is positive for homeowners and communities,” Nallathambi said. “Heading into 2017 we see that prices, performance and production – the three most important drivers of the real estate market – are all improving.”
Holding steady to last month, the national foreclosure inventory remains at 0.9% of all homes with a mortgage. This is down from 1.3% last year.
The market continues to move in the right direction as the number of homes in serious delinquency, or homes that are 90 days or more past due, decreased 24.8% from last year to 1 million mortgages.
This represents 2.6% of all homes, the lowest level since August 2007. In fact, this decrease occurred in 48 states and the District of Columbia.
“September's serious delinquency rate dropped by 25% compared to a year earlier, the third consecutive monthly acceleration in the rate of decline,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said. “This improvement is continued evidence of the recovery in the housing market, especially given that the decreases were fairly uniform in most cities across the country.”
A new report from Black Knight Financial Services shows that by one metric, the housing market is healthier than it’s been since the crisis began.
According to data released at the end of October by Black Knight, the rate of loans in active foreclosure is lower right now than at any point in the last nine years.
