Inman News

9 September 2015

Job Market and Home Price Gains Are Helping More Homeowners Stay in Their Homes, Says CoreLogic.

• The July 2015 foreclosure rate was the lowest we’ve seen since December 2007, before the recession.
• Compared to June, foreclosures in July declined by 6.2 percent, CoreLogic said.
• According to CoreLogic, the continued housing market recovery to some degree reflects tighter underwriting standards put in place after the financial crisis, but the main contributing factors are job market gains and home price appreciation.

Improving economic conditions and the release of pent-up demand for home ownership are pushing down foreclosure rates to their lowest levels since before the recession, says CoreLogic in its most recent National Foreclosure Report.

The property information analytics provider said the July 2015 foreclosure rate was the lowest we’ve seen since December 2007, before the recession.

Foreclosure inventory declined by 27.9 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 24.4 percent since July 2014. In addition, the number of foreclosures nationwide decreased from 50,000 to 38,000 since the same period last year, CoreLogic said.

Compared to June, foreclosures in July declined by 6.2 percent, CoreLogic said. June saw 40,000 reported foreclosures, and by comparison, prior to the housing market bust in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month.

According to CoreLogic, the continued housing market recovery to some degree reflects tighter underwriting standards put in place after the financial crisis, but the main contributing factors are job market gains and home price appreciation.

“The CoreLogic national Home Price Index showed home prices in July rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier, building equity for homeowners,” said Frank Nothaft, the company’s chief economist.

“Further, 2.4 million jobs were created, pushing the unemployment rate down from 6.2 percent in July 2014 to 5.3 percent this July and supporting family income growth for most owners.”

The news is especially positive for homeowners in South Dakota, Washington, D.C., North Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia, which had the lowest number of completed foreclosures in the last year.

But homeowners in Florida, Michigan, Texas, California and Georgia are struggling the most, CoreLogic said, reporting the highest number of foreclosures since July 2014 and accounting for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally.

When examining foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes, the story changes somewhat. The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate are:

• Alaska (0.3 percent)
• Minnesota (0.4 percent)
• North Dakota (0.4 percent)
• Utah (0.4 percent)
• Nebraska (0.4 percent)

The states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes are:

• New Jersey (4.8 percent)
• New York (3.7 percent)
• Florida (2.7 percent)
• Hawaii (2.5 percent)
• Washington, D.C. (2.4 percent)