The shadow inventory-the number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline–is down 33 percent from a year ago and now is at its lowest level since August 2008, at least one year before the notion of a foreclosure shadow inventory was recognized.

According to CoreLogic’s August National Foreclosure Report, the overall residential shadow inventory as of July 2013 was 1.9 million homes, accounting for a value of $293 billion and representing a supply of 3.7 months. This was down 22 percent from a year ago, when it was at 2.4 million, and down 38 percent from its peak in 2010, when it reached 3 million homes.

CoreLogic also reported there were 48,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in August of 2013, down from 72,000 in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 34 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased 1.3 percent, from 47,000 in July 2013*.

As a basis of comparison to the 48,000 completed foreclosures reported for August 2013, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.5 million completed foreclosures across the country. As of August 2013, approximately 939,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 33 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.2 percent from August 2013 to July 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of August 2013 represented 2.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.3 percent in August 2012.

At the end of August 2013, there were approximately 2.1 million mortgages, or 5.3 percent, in serious delinquency (SDQ, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned, REO). The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages is at its lowest level since December 2008.

“The foreclosure inventory continues to improve, as exhibited by these recent numbers,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “A surge in completed foreclosures and a rise in the foreclosure inventory is unlikely given continued house price improvements and shortages of supply in many markets.”

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/shadow-inventory-is-a-shadow-of-itself/