Foreclosure Activity Up in May, Down from Last Year Levels

By Liz Clinger Updated on 6/29/2012

An increase in completed foreclosure activity from April’s revised 62,000 to 63,000 in May, though still significantly down from this time last year’s 77,000.

Since September of 2008 the total of completed foreclosures is 3.6 million, though it’s safe to say that completed foreclosure activity is slowing.

The chief economist for CoreLogic, Mark Fleming, made a statement that with more than 819,000 completed foreclosures over the last year, which averages 2,440 each day, completed foreclosure activity remains high but is actually significantly down from peak activity in 2010. Actually down 27%, as 2010 included 1.1 million completed foreclosures.

Foreclosure inventory on a national level represented 3.4% of all home mortgages in May, staying in-line with April’s numbers of 1.4 million, but still a decline from last year’s inventory of 1.5 million.

Judicial foreclosure states are showing an increase in foreclosures, while non-judicial states are showing a decrease in completed foreclosures. From May 2011 to May 2012, five states made up 48% of all completed foreclosures, including:

• California – 133,000
• Florida – 92,000
• Michigan – 60,000
• Texas – 58,000
• Georgia – 57,000

The states of South Dakota, District of Columbia, North Dakota, West Virginia and Hawaii have the lowest number of completed foreclosures.

Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, New York and Nevada currently have the highest inventory percentage of mortgage homes in the U.S.

For general information about foreclosures, check out Lender411.com's Foreclosure page.