CoreLogic’s (CLGX) new national foreclosure report shows there were 43,000 completed foreclosures in the United States in February 2014, down from 51,000 in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 15%.
On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 13.1% from 50,000 in January 2014.
In all of 2013, CoreLogic’s numbers shows that 4 million homes returned to positive equity, bringing the total number of mortgaged homes with equity to 42.7 million at the start of 2014.
Nearly 6.5 million homes, or 13.3% of all residential properties with a mortgage, were still in negative equity at the end of 2013.
“Although there is good news that completed foreclosures are trending lower, the bigger news is the impressive decline in the foreclosure and shadow inventories,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Every state has had double-digit, year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory, which is reflected in the $70 billion decline in the shadow inventory.”
Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.
Since September 2008, there have been approximately 4.9 million completed foreclosures across the country.