Shadow inventories, for the past three years, have declined year-over-year and posted double-digit declines for the past 16 consecutive months as the housing market continues to heal, Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, says in the company’s Inventory Report.
The national residential shadow inventory was 1.7 million homes in January – a 23 percent year-over-year drop from 2.2 million in January 2013. Foreclosures also continued to fall last month, dropping to 43,000 in February, 15 percent lower than year ago levels. 
“Although there is good news that completed foreclosures are trending lower, the bigger news is the impressive decline in the foreclosure and shadow inventories,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Every state has had double-digit, year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory, which is reflected in the $70 billion decline in the shadow inventory.”
Over the past year, shadow inventory has been falling at an average monthly rate of 41,000 units, CoreLogic reports. The states that hold 42 percent of all distressed properties in the nation are: Florida, California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.
Other highlights from the report:
- About 752,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure or known as “foreclosure inventory” as of February 2014 – a 35 percent drop over year ago levels.
- 1.9 million mortgages – or 4.9 percent – were in serious delinquency by the end of February. Serious delinquency is defined as loans that are 90 days or more past days and includes loans in foreclosure or REO.
- The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory in February (as percentage of all homes with a mortgage) were: New Jersey (6.2%); Florida (6%); New York (4.7%); Maine (3.4%); and Connecticut (3.2%).
- The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory in February were: Wyoming (0.3%); Alaska (0.4%); North Dakota (0.5%); Nebraska (0.5%); and Colorado (0.6%).
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Source: Corelogic
