US Foreclosure Inventory Falls 19.5% From A Year Ago

Completed foreclosures fell 21 percent year-over-year in December to 56,000, according to CoreLogic's latest foreclosure report.

And foreclosure inventory decreased to 1.2 million homes as of December 2012, down 19.5 percent on the year, and 4.2 percent on the month.

This represents 3 percent of all homes with a mortgage.

“The rate of foreclosures continues to trend down, albeit at a slower rate as we exit 2012,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a press release. "This trend should continue into 2013 and is another positive signal that the gradual healing process in the housing market is gaining traction."

Here are some details from the report:

• "The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in December 2012 were: California (100,000), Florida (98,000), Michigan (74,000), Texas (57,000) and Georgia (49,000).These five states account for almost half of all completed foreclosures nationally."

• The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in December 2012 were: District of Columbia, Hawaii, North Dakota, Maine, and West Virginia.

• "The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (10.1 percent), New Jersey (7.0 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Nevada (4.7 percent) and Illinois (4.5 percent)."

Here's a chart that shows foreclosure inventory in judicial and non-judicial states as of December 2012:

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