Report: More than 860,000 foreclosures nationally in 12 months

According to a report by CoreLogic, a provider of information, analytics and business services, the United States saw more than 860,000 completed foreclosures between January 2011 and January 2012. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in January 2012, 65,000 the previous month. In January 2011, the completed foreclosure rate was 80,000.

Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.3% of all homes with a mortgage, were in the foreclosure inventory as of January 2012, compared with 1.5 million, or 3.6% in January 2011. (The foreclosure inventory is the stock of homes in the foreclosure process.)  Nationally, the number of loans in the foreclosure inventory decreased by 145,000, or 9.5%, in January 2012 compared with January 2011.

“We are encouraged by the noticeable progress we are seeing over the last several months in the mortgage industry," said Anand Nallathambi, CEO of CoreLogic. "During the last several years the industry has faced enormous challenges working through difficult and complex issues. We are hopeful that these recent improvements are early signals of revitalization in the mortgage market."

The five states with the largest number of completed foreclosures for the 12  months ending in January 2012 were: California (155,000), Florida (86,000), Arizona (65,000), Michigan (65,000) and Texas (57,000). These five states account for 49.7% of all completed foreclosures nationally.

The five states with the highest foreclosure rates were: Florida (11.8%), New Jersey (6.4%), Illinois (5.3%), Nevada (5.0%) and New York (4.7%).

The five states with the lowest foreclosure rates were: Wyoming (0.7%), Alaska (0.8%), North Dakota (0.8%), Nebraska (1.1%) and Texas (1.3%).