Completed foreclosures declined by nearly a quarter over the course of 2014 CoreLogic said today, and the foreclosure inventory has improved even further, down nearly one-third over the 12 months ended in January 2015.  According to CoreLogic's National Foreclosure Report, a significant decline was also posted year-over-year in the serious delinquency rate.

There were 43,000 completed foreclosures in January compared to 55,000 in January 2014.  It was the 37^th consecutive month of year-over-year declines in the number of homes lost to foreclosure and represented a 63 percent drop from the peak of foreclosure activity in September 2010. The number of completed foreclosures rose in January by 14.7 percent from the 37,000 reported in December.  An estimated 5.5 million homes have been lost to foreclosure since September 2008 which is generally considered the beginning of the housing crisis.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in January 2015 were: Florida (111,000), Michigan (51,000), Texas (34,000), California (30,000) and Georgia (28,000). These five states accounted for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

The national foreclosure inventory now consists of approximately 549,000 homes that are in some stage of foreclosure.  This is a decrease of 33.2 percent since January 2014 when the inventory stood at 822,000. As a percentage of the total homes in the U.S. with a mortgage the inventory rate is 1.4 percent compared to 2.0 percent one year earlier and the lowest rate since March 2008.  As of January the inventory had shrunk on an annual basis for 39 consecutive months and for the last 28 months those changes have been in double digits.   

"The foreclosure inventory continues to shrink with declines in all 50 states over the past 12 months," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Florida, one of the hardest hit states during the foreclosure crisis, experienced a decline of almost 50 percent year over year, which is outstanding news."

Four states and the District of Columbia experienced the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: New Jersey (5.2 percent), New York (4.0 percent), Florida (3.5 percent), Hawaii (2.7 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.5 percent).

An estimated 1.5 million homes were considered seriously delinquent, that is 90 days or more past due or in foreclosure, in January, a rate of 4.0 percent. This was the lowest delinquency rate since June 2008.

"Job growth and home-value appreciation have worked to push the serious delinquency rate to the lowest since mid-2008 and foreclosures down by one-third from a year ago," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. "With economic growth in 2015 expected to be better than last year, further declines in both delinquencies and foreclosures are projected for this year."