Foreclosures down considerably

Foreclosures fell significantly across the country, in April, another sign that the housing market is returning to health.

The foreclosure inventory dropped nearly 25 percent, and completed foreclosures dropped 19.8 percent between March and April of this year, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic in Irvine.

Nationwide, there were approximately 40,000 completed foreclosures during April, down from 50,000 in April 2015. That was a 65.8 percent decline from September 2010, when completed foreclosures hit their peak.

Completed foreclosures indicate the total number of homes lost to foreclosure. About 5.7 million houses have been lost to foreclosure since the recession began in September 2008.

As of April, an estimated 521,000 homes, or 1.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in foreclosure. Exactly one year earlier, those numbers were 694,000 and 1.8 percent, stated CoreLogic in its monthly national foreclosure report.

“Employment recovery, foreclosure alternatives and home-value gains have worked to reduce [the foreclosure] industry,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist with CoreLogic, in a statement.

In the Inland Empire, the foreclosure inventory was 0.8 percent in April, down 0.2 percent year-over-year, according to CoreLogic.

CoreLogic is a property information, analytics and data service provider, with public and private sector clients throughout the world, according to the company’s website.