Real estate data firm RealtyTrac has reported that the number of properties across the USA in the process of being foreclosed upon (re-possessed) dropped last year to its lowest level since 2006.
Some 1,117,426 properties were at some stage of foreclosure proceedings in 2014, down 18% from 2013 and 61% fewer than at the peak of the financial crisis in 2010, when over 2.8million properties had foreclosure filings underway.
Lenders repossessed 327,069 properties last year, down 29% from 2013, RealtyTrac’s data showed. Florida had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate last year, followed by New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and Nevada.
The data for the whole of 2014 showed the foreclosure market is “close to finding a floor and stabilising at an historically normal level,” said vice president at RealtyTrac, Daren Blomquist.
