R.I. foreclosure rate declines in Jan., but still above national rate

RHODE ISLAND'S FORECLOSURE rate fell slightly to 2.2 percent in January, according to CoreLogic. The national foreclosure rate for January was 2 percent, and the Massachusetts rate was 1.3 percent. / COURTESY CORELOGIC
RHODE ISLAND'S FORECLOSURE rate fell slightly to 2.2 percent in January, according to CoreLogic. The national foreclosure rate for January was 2 percent, and the Massachusetts rate was 1.3 percent. / COURTESY CORELOGIC

IRVINE, Calif. – The foreclosure rate for residential mortgages in Rhode Island declined in January, according to a report issued Thursday by real estate data firm CoreLogic.

The rate for the Ocean State fell nine-tenths of a percentage point to 2.2 percent in January compared with 3.1 percent a year earlier, but was higher than the national foreclosure rate of 2 percent. The January rate in Rhode Island also represented a slight decline from December’s 2.3 percent foreclosure rate, defined as the percentage of all residential mortgages in some part of the foreclosure process.

The number of completed foreclosures in the 12 months through the end of January totaled 1,524 in Rhode Island, up from the 1,492 that had been recorded in the 12 months through the end of December.

In addition, CoreLogic gave the “serious delinquency rate,” that is, the percentage of loans that are 90 days or more past due, as 6.4 percent in January, the same as the delinquency rate a month earlier.

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In Massachusetts, foreclosure inventory fell seven-tenths of a percentage point year over year to 1.3 percent in January, compared with the 2 percent national average. December’s rate was also 1.3 percent.

Actual foreclosures in the 12-month period ended Jan. 31 totaled 2,681, a drop from the 2,873 completed in the 12 months through Dec. 31.

The serious delinquency rate for Massachusetts was 4.7 percent in January, unchanged from the rate reported the previous month.

The national foreclosure rate of 2 percent represented a slight drop from 2.1 percent in December and a nine-tenths of a percentage point decline from January 2013. Completed foreclosures for the 12-month period through January totaled 607,370, compared with 620,111 in the 12 months through December. The serious delinquency rate was unchanged from December at 5 percent.

“We are recovering, but we’re not there yet,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

CoreLogic President and CEO Anand Nallathambi said, “The painful tide of high foreclosures continues to recede as fewer borrowers are losing their homes and states are working through their shadow inventory. We are entering 2014 with less than a million homes in the foreclosure inventory.”

The states with the highest percentage of foreclosure inventory included Florida (6.4 percent), New Jersey (6.3 percent), New York (4.8 percent), and Connecticut and Maine (both 3.4 percent).

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