Foreclosures down as economy keeps improving

Foreclosures fell substantially in May, another sign that the housing market is recovering.

The U.S. foreclosure inventory declined 27.4 percent in May year-over-year, with the national foreclosure inventory at 491,000 units, according to a report released Tuesday by CoreLogic in Irvine.

That means about 1.3 percent on all homes were in some state of foreclosure during May, the lowest that figure has been since December 20007, the report stated.

During the same period, the number of completed foreclosures declined by 10,000, to 41,000. That represented a 65 percent drop from September 2010, when completed foreclosures reached their peak.

Completed foreclosures are the total number of houses lost to foreclosure. An estimated 5.7 million houses have been lost to foreclosure since the recession started in September 2008, according to CoreLogic.

The number of mortgages in serious delinquency – 90 days past due, including bank-owned mortgages or mortgages in foreclosure – declined by 22.7 percent in May, the report stated.

The surging job market – about three million jobs created in the past year – has helped people stay on schedule with their mortgage payments, said Frank Nothaft, Core Logic’s chief economist, said in a statement.