More good news for homeowners: On Thursday, residential property data provider CoreLogic (CLGX) reported that the number of home foreclosures in America continues to drop.
Compared to one year ago, home foreclosures completed in July 2013 dropped 25%, to 49,000. This number was also down sequentially from June, when 53,000 foreclosures took place, and marked a reversal of a slight uptick in foreclosures seen between May and June. Completed foreclosures are defined as foreclosure proceedings that actually result in the loss of the home, rather than being cut short at some point in the foreclosure process.
Prior to the financial crisis, monthly completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 in the period between 2000 and 2006, according to CoreLogic. Since the crisis, approximately 4.5 million foreclosures have been completed in the U.S.
Expect them to get less frequent in the months to come, as CoreLogic says there are currently only about 949,000 homes in the U.S. in any stage of foreclosure (the "foreclosure inventory"). That's down from 1.4 million homes in the foreclosure supply chain one year ago (a 32% YOY drop), and down sequentially from 1 million last month.
As of today, only 2.4% of all homes under mortgage are in the foreclosure process, says CoreLogic, compared to 3.4% in July 2012.
Click here to see Fool analyst John Maxfield's article on the five states with the most home foreclosures in July.
