R.I. foreclosure rate falls in May

CORELOGIC said Rhode Island followed national trends in May, as its foreclosure inventory and serious delinquency rates declined compared with May 2015's rates. / COURTESY CORELOGIC
CORELOGIC said Rhode Island followed national trends in May, as its foreclosure inventory and serious delinquency rates declined compared with May 2015's rates. / COURTESY CORELOGIC

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s foreclosure inventory rate declined 2.8 percent year over year in May to 1.4 percent, CoreLogic said Tuesday.
Completed foreclosures also fell to 1,487 for the 12-month period ending in May, a drop of 5.6 percent compared with the prior-year period.
Forclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process and completed foreclosures reflect the total number of homes lost to foreclosure.
Rhode Island is mirroring national downward trends regarding foreclosures.
The national foreclosure rate fell 24.5 percent to 1 percent over the same time period, while completed foreclosures dropped nearly 18 percent to 461,638.
In the Ocean State, the serious delinquency rate – mortgages that are 90 days or more past due including loans in foreclosure – slipped 21 percent over the year, to 4 percent. Nationwide, the serious delinquency rate also fell, 22 percent, to 2.8 percent.
“Delinquency and foreclosure rates continue to drop as we experience the benefits of a combination of tight underwriting, job and income growth and a steady rise in home prices. We expect these factors to remain in place for the remainder of this year and for delinquency and foreclosure rates to decline even further,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a statement. “As we finally move past the housing crisis, we need to increase our focus on expanding the supply of affordable housing and access to credit for first-time homebuyers in sustainable ways to ensure the long-term health of the U.S. housing market.”

CoreLogic said that since the financial crisis began in 2008, there have been approximately 6.3 million completed foreclosures nationally. Since home ownership rates peaked in the 2004 second quarter, approximately 8.3 million homes have been lost to foreclosure.
The state with the lowest foreclosure inventory rate was Alaska at 0.3 percent. New Jersey had the highest foreclosure inventory rate among the states at 3.6 percent.
Florida had the highest number of completed foreclosures at 63,000, while the District of Columbia and North Dakota had the lowest number of completed foreclosures at 139 and 323, respectively.

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