Housing Recovery Boosted by Drop in Shadow Inventory

The “shadow inventory” fell to 1.7 million homes in January, down nearly 23 percent from 2.2 million seriously delinquent properties that had not been listed for sale in January 2013, CoreLogic reports. The drop is good news for the housing recovery, considering that properties typically sell at steep discounts when they hit the market, often bringing down values nearby. The CoreLogic report also reveals that the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure fell to 752,000 in February, down 35 percent from 1.2 million a year earlier. Completed foreclosures fell 15 percent in February from the same month last year to 43,000. Florida had the most distressed inventory, accounting for 15 percent of the nation’s troubled properties in January. It, California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois together accounted for 42 percent of the distressed inventory. | Read More