Mapped: Foreclosures Down 28%, Lowest Levels Since 2007
And in another round of good news for the housing market, July saw only 38,000 foreclosures nationwide, the lowest foreclosure rate since 2007. The foreclosure figures are down 24.4% from last July, representing an overall 67.9% decrease from the peak month of September 2010's 117,225 homes. Florida, Michigan, Texas, California and Georgia round out the top 5 states with the lowest number of foreclosures. Ever since the financial crisis hit, there have been 5.8 million completed foreclosures. Job market gains and home-price appreciation are the primary drivers of the foreclosure decrease, CoreLogic chief economist Frank Nothaft says. As the unemployment rate has fallen, family income has become stronger to help support homebuying (and keeping). CoreLogic's national HPI also shows July home prices to have risen by 6.9% from last July. This proof of recovery in the housing market "reflects the progressive clearing of crisis-era loans and the benefits of tighter underwriting standards over the past six years," CoreLogic CEO Anand Nallathambi says in a press release.
