PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s foreclosure inventory rate fell to 1.5 percent in April, a 6 percent drop from April 2015, CoreLogic said Tuesday.
CoreLogic said Rhode Island had 1,336 completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in April, a 17.1 percent drop from 1,612 completed foreclosures during the same time frame a year before.
Following downward trends, the Ocean State’s serious delinquency rate also fell, to 4.2 percent, a year-over-year drop of 20.4 percent. The serious delinquency rate reflects mortgages that are 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure or real-estate-owned properties.
CoreLogic said the national foreclosure inventory also fell year over year in April by 23.4 percent and completed foreclosures decreased by 15.8 percent over the same period.
Nationwide, the number of completed foreclosures fell year over year in April to 37,000 from 43,000 – that represents a nearly 69 percent decrease from the peak of 117,813 in September 2010.
Foreclosure inventory represents homes in some stage of the foreclosure process and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes lost to foreclosure.
CoreLogic said the number of mortgages in serious delinquency nationwide declined by 21.6 percent year over year in April, with 1.1 million mortgages, or 3 percent, in this category. The April 2016 serious delinquency rate is the lowest in more than eight years, since October 2007, CoreLogic said.
“The recovery in home prices and improved labor market have contributed to the drop in seriously delinquent rates,” Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement. “Over the 12 months through April, the CoreLogic Home Price Index for the U.S. rose 6.2 percent and the labor market gained 2.6 million jobs. We also found that the seriously delinquent rate fell by about three-quarters of a percentage point.”
Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic said the number of homeowners who have negative equity has fallen by two-thirds since its 2010 peak, and the number of borrowers in foreclosure proceedings has also continued to drop.
“Despite this progress, about four million homeowners remained underwater at the end of the first quarter, and these borrowers are more vulnerable to foreclosure proceedings if they should fall delinquent,” Nallathambi said.
New Jersey had the highest foreclosure inventory rate in April at 3.7 percent, while Alaska and Minnesota were tied for the lowest at 0.3 percent.
Florida had the highest number of completed foreclosures at 66,000, while the District of Columbia and North Dakota had the lowest at 128 and 317, respectively.
