There were 34,000 completed foreclosures in July, as banks continue to clean up foreclosure inventories eight years after the housing crisis began.  CoreLogic said the monthly total was down 16.5 percent from a year earlier when 41,000 properties were foreclosed and that there were 2,000 foreclosures fewer than in June.  July activity represented a decrease of 71.2 percent from September 2010 when foreclosures peaked at 118,009 in a single month.  The incidence is still elevated from the norm; an average of 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006.

Those inventories of properties in the process of being foreclosed are now 29.1 percent lower than they were in July 2015 and down 3.9 percent from June.  There were 355,000 homes in foreclosure inventories nationwide in July or 0.9 percent of all homes with a mortgage, the lowest level since August 2007.  A year ago there were just over a half million homes in foreclosure, a rate of 1.3 percent.

Serious delinquencies are also down, with 1.1 million mortgages more than 90 days past due in July, a rate of 2.9 percent, a 17.3 percent decline in a year.  CoreLogic said the decline was geographically broad, occurring in 47 states and the District of Columbia.

"Loan modifications, foreclosures and stronger housing and labor markets have each played a role in bringing the foreclosure rate to the lowest level in nine years," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The U.S. Treasury's Making Home Affordable program has contributed to the decline through permanent modifications, forbearance and foreclosure alternatives which have assisted 2.5 million homeowners with first mortgages at risk of foreclosure since 2009."

Foreclosures were highest on an annual basis in Florida, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, and California.  Those five states accounted for about 40 percent of all completed foreclosures in the nation.

"Foreclosure rates declined year over year in all states except North Dakota, which experienced a 6 percent increase in its foreclosure inventory related to the drop in energy-related jobs," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Importantly, judicial states like New Jersey and New York have continued to work through their large inventory of homes in foreclosure proceedings."