The nine-year-old wound in Georgia’s housing market continues to heal, but the state still ranks high in foreclosures.
Among states Georgia had the sixth most foreclosures during the past year, according to a report issued today from CoreLogic, a California-based firm that collects real estate information.
But the pain is receding, with the number of homes foreclosed upon down 18 percent over the past year, CoreLogic said.
The top states and their number of foreclosures in the past 12 months:
— Florida, 59,749
— Michigan, 46, 696
— Texas, 27,054
— Ohio, 23,427
— California, 22,433
— Georgia, 21,877
In Florida and Ohio, a judicial action is needed to foreclose on a home. In the other top states, including Georgia, the action can be taken without a court.
A long, if unspectacular, recovery — along with a rebound in housing prices – have combined to bolster the overall market and give many homeowners the breathing room they needed to stay afloat.
“We expect the combination of continued home price appreciation of more than 5 percent and rising employment levels in the year ahead will help cement the gains we have had and perhaps accelerate them,” said Anand Nallathambi, chief executive of CoreLogic.
Nationally, there have been 459,839 completed foreclosures in the past 12 months and the pipeline – while slower – is still pumping out pain, but the flow is slower.
Across the United States, there are still 1.1 million mortgages, or 2.8 percent of the total, in which the owner is “seriously delinquent.” That means the borrower is at least several months late in making payments, but not all those homes will end up in foreclosre.
In any event, that delinquency rate is the lowest it has been since September 2007.
Georgia’s rate of serious delinquency has likewise dropped to 2.8 percent, down 18 percent during the past year, CoreLogic said.
About one-third of American homes are owned outright and do not have a mortgage.
