Foreclosure completions up slightly in August, starts fall

Foreclosure completions were up slightly in August at 48,000, though the numbers still represented a 26% decline, year-over-year, Market Realist reports. However, foreclosure starts dropped to 55,775, a 44% decline since last year and their lowest since Dec. 2005, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

Judicial states like Florida, New Jersey and New York took away the highest percentage of foreclosures, while non-judicial states like California and Arizona experienced fewer.

Indeed, a CoreLogic report found that Florida led the nation in foreclosures in the 12 months ended in August, the Miami Herald reports. Nearly 17% of the nation's 658,463 foreclosures in that period, or 111,000, were in Florida.

According to Market Realist's Brent Nyitray, the national inconsistencies in foreclosure rates is directly linked to the geographic disparity in home price growth. Nyitray says that the lower home prices for distressed properties equal lower average selling prices for builders, which is reflected in the quarterly earnings reports of many homebuilders.

However, the promising outlook for starts suggests that homebuilders will continue to experience an overall improvement in market conditions as the country works through its foreclosure pipeline.