Seriously delinquent mortgages accounted for a smaller share of outstanding home loans last month. As foreclosure activity continued to retreat, states that require foreclosures to be handled through courts carried the worst foreclosure rates.
The rate of 90-day delinquency on residential loans was 5.5 percent as of June 30.
Serious delinquency declined from the previous month, when 5.6 percent of mortgages were at least three months past due.
Mortgage servicers have brought down the 90-date rate by 140 BPS compared to a year earlier.
The statistics were reported Tuesday by mortgage data giant CoreLogic Inc.
Florida’s 13.0 percent serious delinquency rate was higher than any other state but 30 basis points better than in May.
At 10.7 percent, New Jersey had the second-worst serious delinquency rate. The Garden State saw a 10-basis-point drop in its 90-day rate.
New York’s 7.9 percent delinquency rate followed, then 7.4 percent in Illinois and 7.2 percent in Maryland.
Illinois’ top-five ranking was helped along by the 8.6 percent rate in the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville core-based statistical area, while New York’s and New Jersey’s rates were boosted by an 8.2 percent rate in the New York-White Plains-Wayne CBSA.
With a 90-day delinquency rate of only 1.1 percent, performance was best in North Dakota.
Last month closed out with a million U.S. home loans in some stage of foreclosure. That worked out to a 2.5 percent foreclosure inventory rate.
The foreclosure rate was down from 2.6 percent in May and 3.4 percent in June 2012.
In Florida, the foreclosure inventory rate was 8.6 percent — the highest of all states.
New Jersey’s 6.0 percent was the second-worst. After that was 4.8 percent in New York, 4.2 percent in Connecticut and 4.1 percent in Maine.
All of the five-worst states require judicial foreclosures.
At just 0.5 percent, Wyoming’s foreclosure rate was the lowest. Wyoming is a non-judicial foreclosure state.
Home loan servicers completed 55,000 U.S. foreclosures in the most recent period.
The prior month’s real-estate-owned filings totaled an upwardly revised 53,000, while the year-earlier figure was 68,000.
Despite the improving trend, the pace of repossessions remains well above the 21,000-per-month rate in place prior to 2007.
During the 12 months ended June 30, 701,959 foreclosures have been completed.
Florida’s 107,592 completed foreclosures for the 12 months ended June 30 were the most of any state.
California’s 72,334 was next, followed by Michigan’s 63,281, Texas’ 47,672 and Georgia’s 44,083. All four states are non-judicial foreclosure states.
With just 397 completed foreclosures over the past year, Hawaii — a judicial foreclosure state — had the fewest.
CoreLogic Chief Economist Dr. Mark Fleming noted in the report that REO filings have fallen for 19 consecutive months.
While all metrics have been improving, CoreLogic President and Chief Executive Officer Anand Nallathambi predicted that the current down cycle in the housing market won’t conclude for several years.
