The number of foreclosures recorded in the U.S. fell 20% year-over-year in June, with only 55,000 homes completing the process, CoreLogic (CLGX) said.

Just a year earlier, 68,000 foreclosures were recorded in the same survey. Yet, when compared to the previous month of May, foreclosures edged up 2.5% from 53,000 foreclosures.

While foreclosures are down from last year, they have yet to reach normalized levels of 21,000 foreclosures per month – a level held between the years 2000 and 2006.

Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, 4.5 million completed foreclosures have been recorded by CoreLogic.

As of June, one million homes remain ins ome stage of the foreclosure process, down from 1.4 million a year earlier.

The number of distressed homes on the market also is in a freefall.

“So far this year, distressed inventories have fallen dramatically, down 14.4 percent, and serious delinquencies are down 15.9 percent,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “In the first six months of 2013, the stock of seriously delinquent mortgages has dropped by 412,000.”