CoreLogic said this morning that over the last 10 years the number of completed foreclosures in the U.S. has been the equivalent of 15 percent of all mortgage homes.  The company's Deputy Chief Economist Sam Khater said that since homeownership peaked in the second quarter of 2004 there have been over 7 million homes lost to foreclosure with 5.2 million of those actions occurring since the financial crisis began in September 2008.

CoreLogic, in its August National Foreclosure Report, estimates there were 45,000 completed foreclosures during the month, 13,000 fewer than during the same month in 2013, a decrease of 22.2 percent.  However the number of foreclosures did rise slightly from July, by 1.1 percent.  As a basis of comparison, between 2000 and 2006 completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide. 

"The number of foreclosures completed during the last 12 months is at the lowest level since November of 2007," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "At current foreclosure rates, the shadow inventory could fall below 500,000 units by year-end which could provide a solid boost to the recovery in housing in 2015."

It was the 19th consecutive month that the number of foreclosures exceeded 20 percent nationwide and only two states did not have double-digit decreases in their year-over-year foreclosure numbers.  Washington, D.C. declined by only 2.5 percent and Wyoming saw a 13.4 percent increase.

As of August there were approximately 629,000 homes in the foreclosure inventory, that is in some stage of foreclosure.  This is 1.6 percent of all homes in the country with a mortgage.  The inventory in August was down 2.6 percent from July and 32.8 percent from August 2013.  There were 936,000 homes in the inventory at that time and the inventory rate was 2.4 percent.  August 2014 was the 34^th straight month that the number of homes in foreclosure has declined.

Twenty-eight states had a decline in their foreclosure inventory exceeding 30 percent on a year-over-year basis.  Utah and Idaho each had declines of 46 percent.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in August 2014 were: Florida (121,000), Michigan (43,000), Texas (36,000), California (32,000) and Georgia (28,000).These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: New Jersey (5.8 percent), Florida (4.6 percent), New York (4.2 percent), Hawaii (3 percent) and Maine (2.7 percent).