CoreLogic released data yesterday showing that the number of foreclosures completed in December fell 40 percent from a year earlier, NationalMortgageNews.com reported. There were a total of 21,000 completed foreclosures in December, down from 36,000 the year before, according to CoreLogic. The national foreclosure inventory was 329,000 in December, representing a 30 percent drop from 467,000 homes in 2015. Overall, 0.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage were in foreclosure in December, down from 1.2 percent the previous year. The number of mortgages in serious delinquency, which CoreLogic defines as 90 days or more past due including loans in foreclosure or REO, fell by 19.4 percent year over year to 1 million mortgages, which equates to 2.6 percent of all mortgaged properties. This is the lowest number of homes in serious delinquency since August 2007, but some parts of the country were experiencing more defaults than others. "While the decline in serious delinquency has been geographically broad, some oil-producing markets have shown the effects of low oil prices on the housing market," Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a news release. "Serious delinquency rates rose in Louisiana, Wyoming and North Dakota, reflecting the weakness in oil production."
