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Black Knight: Foreclosures drop to lowest level in more than 10 years

National foreclosure rate falls to 10-year low

A new report from Black Knight Financial Services shows that there were fewer loans in foreclosure in the month of July than in any month in more than 10 years.

According to Black Knight’s new report, released Thursday, there were 398,000 properties in foreclosure pre-sale in July. That’s down 12,000 from June and down more than 150,000 from the same time period last year, a decline of 28%.

July also marked the first time that the number of loans in foreclosure was below 400,000 since February 2007.

Additionally, Black Knights report showed that the national foreclosure rate sat at 0.78% in July, down 2.96% from the previous month and down nearly 28% from the previous year.

That’s the lowest that figure has been in more than 10 years, as well.

Black Knight’s report also showed that there were only 53,300 foreclosure starts in July, which is the second lowest amount in any month since the start of 2005, behind only April of this year.

While foreclosures are down, loans in delinquency status increased slightly month-over-month in July, but 2017’s total is still below last year’s figures.

Overall, the total U.S. loan delinquency rate (that’s loans that are 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) is 3.9%, up 2.82% from June, but down 13.49% from July 2016.

Broken down by bucket, there were 1.99 million properties that are 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, in July. That’s up 54,000 from June, but down 300,000 from 2016.

The number of properties that are 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, held steady at 555,000 in July, but that’s still 140,000 lower than last year.

Overall, Black Knight’s report shows that there were 2.38 million properties that are 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure in July. That’s up 42,000 from June, but down 452,000 from last year.

Broken down by state, the top five states in terms of foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans are:

  • Mississippi – 10.45%
  • Louisiana – 8.77% 
  • Alabama – 7.23%
  • West Virginia – 7.01%
  • Maine – 6.59%

On the other end of the spectrum, the five states with the lowest percentage of non-current loans are:

  • Montana – 2.72%
  • Oregon – 2.62%
  • Minnesota – 2.53%
  • North Dakota – 2.3%
  • Colorado – 2.18%

[Correction: Due to an error in the source data, this article previously stated that the foreclosure rate fell to a 12-year low. The article is now corrected to reflect the accurate data.]

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