The first half of 2015 saw foreclosure activity continue to decline.  RealtyTrac's Midyear U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows that 597,589 properties received some type of foreclosure filing during the six months ended in June.  This included default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions or completed foreclosures.  The overall filing numbers are down 3 percent from the first half of 2014 and 13 percent lower than in the second half. 

Foreclosure starts declined four percent from a year earlier to a total of 304,439, the lowest level in 10 years.  The figure fell 18 percent below the peak of foreclosure starts in the first half of 2006, a period which pre-dated the housing crisis.

 "U.S. foreclosure starts have not only returned to pre-housing crisis levels, they have fallen well below those pre-crisis levels and are still searching for a floor, down 4 percent from a year ago," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. "Loans originated in the last five years continue to perform better than historic norms, with tighter lending standards and more cautious borrower behavior acting as important guardrails for the real estate boom of the past three years."

Bank repossessions however are still well above what might be considered normal.  A total of 209,281 U.S. properties were repossessed by lenders in first half of 2015, up 20 percent from a year ago and 37 percent above the number of bank repossessions (REOs) in the first half of 2006 before the housing bubble burst. Completed foreclosures also remain above 2006 levels in 35 states including California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Nevada.

"Less-disciplined loans originated during the last housing boom continue to account for the majority of distress still hanging over the housing market, with two-thirds of all loans in foreclosure on loans originated between 2004 and 2008," Blomquist noted. "An increasing number of these failed bubble-era loans finally exited the foreclosure process in the first half of 2015, resulting in accelerating bank repossessions that are still well above pre-crisis levels along with record-long average foreclosure timelines for properties foreclosed in the second quarter."

The highest level of foreclosure activity in the country is still in Florida.  While filings there were down 22 percent from a year earlier it still had a filing rate of 1.06 percent (one in every 95 properties) over the six month period. 

Activity is still increasing in New Jersey - up 24 percent from the same period in 2014.  It has the second highest filing rate, 0.92 percent with one filing for every 109 properties.  It was nearly matched by Maryland with only a slightly lower rate after a 1 percent year-over-year decline.

Nevada's foreclosure activity increased 10 percent year-over-year and it had the fourth highest rate at 0.79 percent (one in 126).  Illinois was fifth at 0.74 percent, one in every 135 units, despite its 9 percent annual improvement.

Foreclosure activity is still increasing in a number of states.  Filings in Massachusetts rose by 43 percent on an annual basis; New York and New Jersey were up by 31 and 24 percent respectively and Texas and Michigan by 21 and 17 percent.

Among metro areas the highest rate of filings was in Atlantic City, New Jersey at 1.70 percent of households.  Eight of the remaining top ten areas were in Florida, led by number two, Tampa, and number three Lakeland, followed by Jacksonville and Ocala.  Rockford, Illinois was the seventh on the list with a rate of 1.14 percent.

Eight of the 20 largest metro areas saw increases in foreclosure activity compared to the previous year, most notably Boston, up 29 percent, St. Louis (+25 percent), and New York (+24 percent).  Dallas and Houston each posted increases of 19 percent.

The time to complete a foreclosure continued to increase, taking an average of 629 days from the first public notice of foreclosure to complete the process, the longest average time to foreclose since RealtyTrac began tracking it in the first quarter of 2007.  States with the longest foreclosure timelines were New Jersey (1,206), Hawaii (1,060), Montana (1,028), New York (1,000), and Florida (989).

The mid-year report also included data for June.  Briefly, total filings numbered 117,055 during that month, down 8 percent from May when activity had surged to a 19 month high, but still 9 percent above filings in June 2014.  It was the fourth consecutive month with a year-over-year increase.

There were 49,105 foreclosure starts, down 4 percent from May but 4 percent higher on an annual basis. Completed foreclosures numbered 36,503 in June, a 19 percent drop from May but still up 36 percent from a year ago, the fourth consecutive month with a year-over-year increase