New foreclosure filings, completed foreclosures and total foreclosure filings all declined last month compared to a month earlier and a year earlier.
May saw 49,240 U.S. foreclosures started, fewer than the 54,613 foreclosures that were begun during the previous month.
Activity sank from the same month last year, when residential loan servicers started the foreclosure process on 72,698 properties.
RealtyTrac released the data Tuesday.
In the first five months of this year, 268,664 foreclosure were started.
California had more foreclosure starts than any other state: 5,998. Florida followed with 4,902. Next was 3,769 in New York, then 2,897 in Texas and 2,510 in Ohio.
A total of 109,824 U.S. properties were hit with some sort of foreclosure filing — including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — last month, fewer than 115,830 in April and 148,054 in May 2013.
Florida’s 20,618 total filings were the most of any state, then 12,681 in the Golden State. Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania rounded out the top five.
RealtyTrac reported a U.S. foreclosure rate of one filing made on each 1,199 properties in May, better than one filing for each 1,137 housing units the previous month and one filing for each 885 housing units a year earlier.
The absolute worst foreclosure rate was in Florida:Â one-in-436. Maryland’s one-in-621 was No. 2. After that was one-in-717 in Nevada, one-in-790 in Illinois and one-in-805 in Ohio.
The best rate was in North Dakota: just one filing for each 159,734 housing units.
Mortgage servicers completed 28,373 foreclosures last month, easing from the 30,056 repossessions in April and dropping from 38,946 in the same month during 2013.
In the five months ended May 31, there were 147,802 foreclosures completed.
Real-estate-owned filings were highest in Florida at 6,173. California’s 2,558 completed foreclosures was the second worst. after that were 2,043 in Illinois, 1,406 in Ohio and 1,057 in Georgia.
Just two REO filings occurred in North Dakota, the fewest of any state.
