Almost all foreclosure metrics improved last month on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis. The only exception was the number of foreclosures started, which was up from a year earlier.
Residential mortgage servicers initiated the foreclosure process on 55,906 U.S. home loans during the month of November.
Although foreclosure starts slipped from 56,452 the previous month, volume increased from the 52,826 foreclosures begun in the same month last year.
The statistics were reported Thursday by RealtyTrac.
From Jan. 1 through Nov. 30, foreclosure starts amounted to
In New Jersey, 5,706 foreclosures were started last month — more than in any other state. Florida followed with 5,102, then 4,570 in Texas, 4,490 in California and 3,787 in New York.
Including default notices, scheduled auctions and repossessions — a total of 112,498 U.S. properties were hit with a filing last month.
Total filings retreated from 123,109 in October and 113,454 filings in November 2013.
Florida had the most properties with a filing:Â 19,447. California’s 10,123 filings were next. After that was New Jersey’s 7,437, Illinois’ 6,243 and Ohio’s 5,926. North Dakota had just four filings — fewer than any of its counterparts.
There was one foreclosure filing for each 1,170 U.S. housing units in November 2014, improving from the one-in-1,069 rate a month earlier and one-in-1,155 a year earlier.
One filing was filed on each 462 homes in Florida, the worst rate of any state. Close behind was New Jersey, where a foreclosure was filed on each 478 housing units. The third-worst rate, one-in-581, was in Maryland, then one-in-693 in Delaware and one-in-750 in Utah. Just one foreclosure was filed on each 79,867 properties in North Dakota — the most favorable rate in the nation.
Last, but certainly not least, were repossessions — which retreated to 25,249 nationally last month from 27,914 in October. Real-estate-owned filings also eased from the same month in 2013, when 30,461 foreclosures were completed.
In the 11 months ended Nov. 30, servicers completed 303,064 foreclosures.
There were 5,014 foreclosures completed in Florida — the most of any state. No. 2 California saw 2,036 foreclosures finished. Illinois followed with 1,877 REOÂ filings, then 1,665 in Ohio and 1,260 in Michigan.
No completed foreclosures in North Dakota were the fewest of any state.
