In the month of September, 51,000 U.S. home foreclosures were completed. That was down 0.7% from a revised total of about 51,000 in August and down 39% from 84,000 in September 2012, according to research firm CoreLogic Inc. (NYSE: CLGX). While an improvement, the number of foreclosures is still well above the 2000 to 2006 average of 21,000 foreclosures per month. CoreLogic notes that since September 2008, some 4.6 million foreclosures have been completed in the United States.

The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in the past 12 months were Florida (115,000), California (52,000), Texas (43,000), Michigan (40,000) and Georgia (39,000). The five states with the fewest foreclosures in the 12 months through September were District of Columbia (52), North Dakota (454), Hawaii (490), West Virginia (521) and Wyoming (719).

The five states with the largest inventories of foreclosed properties as a percentage of mortgaged properties are Florida (7.4%), New Jersey (6.5%), New York (4.8%), Maine (4.0%) and Connecticut (3.7%). The five states with the lowest inventories of foreclosed properties are Wyoming (0.4%), Alaska (0.6%), North Dakota (0.7%), Nebraska (0.7%) and Colorado (0.7%).

CoreLogic’s chief economist noted:

The foreclosure inventory continues to decline, now standing at an early 2009 level. Just over 900,000 properties remain in the inventory, two thirds of them in judicial states where the foreclosure process is typically slower. Consequently, the pace of overall improvement in the inventory will slow down and distressed assets will cast a long shadow over housing markets in states with judicial foreclosure.

CoreLogic notes that mortgages judged to be seriously delinquent have declined by 26.2% year-over-year and that the percentage of mortgages that are seriously delinquent totals 5.2% of all mortgages. For the 12 months ending in September 2013, 636,670 foreclosures have been completed.

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