Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure rates in Minnesota and across the country fell last month, signaling stabilization, rather than robust recovery, for the foreclosure crisis.
CoreLogic, which tracks national housing data using public records, said that last month there were about 65,000 completed foreclosures compared with 66,000 in February 2011, and that through February, about 1.4 million homes —– or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage – were in the foreclosure inventory as of February 2012 compared to 1.5 million last year. That's a 0.2 percent decline in foreclosure inventor and a half-percent decline in delinquencies. In Minnesota 1.7 percent of all homes with a mortgage were in foreclosure inventory.
Delinquencies, or those who were more than 90 days last on a payment, fell 0.7 percent to 4.4 percent of all mortgages in the state. Analysts say that despite recent declines in delinquencies, there's still a significant backlog of foreclosures yet to hit the market. And even though sales of those foreclosures now dominate the market in many parts of the country, including the Twin Cities, those distressed sales will have an impact on the market for at least a couple years.
"In February, more than 60 major markets saw a decrease in their foreclosure rates compared to a year ago," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "This combined with faster REO-clearing rates, better employment news, and continued historically low interest rates are all positive signs of improvement in the housing economy."
