Completed foreclosures in June were down 63.3 percent from the peak reached in September 2010.  That month, just before the robo-signing scandal forced a temporary moratorium on foreclosures and slowed the pace going forward, there were 117,119 foreclosure actions completed.  This past June there were 43,000 down 14.8 percent from the previous June's 50,000 actions, however it was an increase of 2,000 properties or 4.8 percent from May.

The June National Foreclosure Report published by CoreLogic on Tuesday said there have been 5.8 million foreclosures since September 2008 and 7.8 million since homeownership reached an all-time peak in the second quarter of 2004.  Before the decline in the housing market in 2007 there were typically about 21,000 foreclosures each month.

The national foreclosure inventory indicates the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure.  It declined by 28.9 percent from June 2014 to June 2015 and at the end of June included approximately 472,000 properties compared to 664,000 homes.  The foreclosure inventory rate, 1.2 percent of all mortgaged homes, is the lowest since December 2007.

About half of all foreclosures nationally over the 12 months ended in June occurred in five states, Florida (102,000), Michigan (46,000), Texas (33,000), California (29,000) and Ohio (27,000).  In June the highest foreclosure inventories as a percentage of mortgaged homes in June were in New Jersey (4.7 percent), New York (3.7 percent), Florida (2.7 percent), Hawaii (2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (2.4 percent).

CoreLogic also reports that the number of mortgages that were seriously delinquent (defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or REO) declined by 23.3 percent from June 2014 to June 2015, with 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.5 percent, falling into this category. This is the lowest serious delinquency rate since January 2008. On a month-over-month basis, the number of seriously delinquent mortgages declined by 3.4 percent.

"The foreclosure rate for the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level since 2007, supported by a continuing decline in loans made before 2009, gains in employment, and higher housing prices," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The decline has not been uniform geographically, as the foreclosure rate varies across metropolitan areas. In the Denver and San Francisco areas, the foreclosure rate has fallen to 0.3 percent, whereas in the Tampa market the rate is 3.5 percent and in Nassau and Suffolk counties it is an elevated 4.8 percent."

"Serious delinquency is at the lowest level in seven and a half years reflecting the benefits of slow but steady improvements in the economy and rising home prices," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "We are also seeing the positive impact of more stringent underwriting criteria for loans originated since 2009 which has helped to lower the national seriously delinquent rate."