Foreclosures, Not As Big An Impact As We Thought

Today CoreLogic released a report that shows completed foreclosures for the month of April are down 24% compared to a year ago. That makes it seventeen straight months that foreclosures have declined across the country. There are a little over a million properties at some stage of the foreclosure process during any given month, which is plenty to be sure, but the number is steadily decreasing. Florida and California are still the states that have the highest number of foreclosures and any of the states that require a judicial foreclosure process are also towards the top of the list. But all that talk about a shadow inventory flooding the market doesn't look like it is going to materialize. The lenders have streamlined their foreclosure alert teams (okay, so they don't call them that) and many of the properties that could have become foreclosures are going the way of the short sale. Banks got smart fast.