While it is certainly good news we wish we could find a new and more interesting way to say it.  Nonetheless, foreclosure activity has declined again, this time as reflected in June "first look" data from Black Knight Financial Services.

The U.S. delinquency rate in June was 4.82 percent, a 2.90 percent drop from May and 15.3 percent from a year earlier.  The number of properties that were 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure at the end of June was 2,444,000, 69,000 fewer than in May and down 439,000 from June 2014.  Seriously delinquent mortgages - those 90 or more days past due but not in foreclosure, declined by 27,000 from the previous month to 895,000.  In June 2014 the number was approximately 1.16 million.

Mortgages in the process of foreclosure, the pre-sale inventory, numbered 739,000 at the end of the reporting period, down 15,000 month-over-month and 212,000 year-over year.  These in-foreclosure properties represented 1.46 percent of all mortgaged properties in the U.S., a rate that declined 2.11 percent from May and 22.55 percent from the previous year.

Seventy-nine thousand properties entered the foreclosure process during the month, down 3.54 percent from foreclosure starts in May and 10.53 percent from June 2014.  Foreclosure sales (completed foreclosures) were at a rate of 1.91 percent, down 4.89 percent from May but an increase of 10.76 percent from the previous June.

Total distressed properties including those 30 or more days delinquent or in process of foreclosure declined by 85,000 from May and 651,000 from a year earlier but still totaled 3,183,000 at the end of June.  Foreclosures as a percentage of all mortgages were highest in Mississippi at 12.74 percent, New Jersey (10.56 percent), Louisiana, Maine, and New York, all in the 9-10 percent range.

Black Knight put the monthly pre-payment rate at 1.40 percent, up 3.58 percent from May and a 46.55 percent increase from the previous June.  Pre-payment rates are often tied to increasing rates of refinancing.

The company will provide a more in-depth review of this data in its monthly Mortgage Monitor report, which will be available by Aug. 3, 2015.