Foreclosure activity in the Twin Cities metro took a healthy dip during February, but mortgage woes remain a serious problem. CoreLogic said that the foreclosures rate in the metro was 1.15 percent for the month, a decline of 0.82 percentage points compared with last year when the rate was 1.97 percent. That's well below the national rate of 2.85 percent. Delinquencies - loans that were 90 days or more late and an indicator of future foreclosures - also declined, falling 1.06 percentage points to 3.65 percent of all mortgages compared with 6.2 percent nationally.
Foreclosures have been falling slowly, but steadily as rising home prices lift homeowners out negativy equity, and improvements in the economy make it easier for people to keep up on their payments. Already, foreclosure listings in the Twin Cities metro have fallen dramatically, according to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, which said that the number of lender-owned listings that hit the market during March was down nearly 30 percent.
CoreLogic, by the way, was the subject of big news this week. The company announced this week that it had acquired Case-Shiller, the group that produces the oft-watched Case-Shiller Home Price Index. No changes are expected.
