Foreclosure starts dropped a dramatic 22% in April compared to March and were down about 7% compared to a year earlier, according to Black Knight Financial Services' ‘First Look’ report.
More precisely, there were about 73,500 foreclosure starts, a decrease of 21.89% compared to March and down 6.73% compared to April 2014, the firm says.
Meanwhile, there was a slight increase in mortgage delinquencies in April, which, based on historical trends, is normal, according to the report.
About 4.77% of loans were 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, in April, an increase of 1.46% compared to March but down 15.04% compared April 2014, according to the report.
Prepayments were processed on about 1.39% of all loans – down 14.49% compared to March but up 60.12% compared to April 2014.
Arguably the biggest problem facing the housing market and the mortgage industry right now is the lack of available inventory and, according to Black Knight, the amount of available foreclosure inventory shrank even further. As of April, there were about 764,000 properties in foreclosure inventory, down about 18,000 compared to March and down about 252,000 compared to April 2014. Florida led the nation with a 17.4% reduction in non-current inventory over the previous six months, according to Black Knight.
The total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate was 1.51%, down 2.43% compared to March and down 25.45% compared to April 2014.
About 2.415 million properties were 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, as of April – down 35,000 from March and down 406,000 from April 2014.
About 952,000 properties were 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, as of April – down about 19,000 from March and down about 235,000 from April 2014.
States that saw the largest year over year increases in delinquencies in April included Mississippi (12.63%), New Jersey (10.75%), Louisiana (9.79%), New York (9.22%) and Maine (9.06%).           Â
States that saw the smallest increases in their delinquency rates included Minnesota (3.30%), Montana (3.30%), South Dakota (3.21%), Colorado (3.05%), and North Dakota: (2.11%).