Report: Home foreclosures show big decline in Kansas

Home foreclosures are down in Kansas and nationally, according to a news release from a California-based financial analytics firm.

In its monthly findings released Tuesday, CoreLogic reported that completed national foreclosures declined by nearly 23 percent last December when compared with the same month in 2014.

Nationwide, the number of completed foreclosures decreased from about 41,000 in December 2014 to about 32,000 in December 2015, according to the report. The number of completed foreclosures in December 2015 was down nearly 73 percent from its peak of 117,722 in September 2010.

In Kansas, the numbers were even more pronounced as completed foreclosures for December 2015 totaled 2,624, down about 45 percent from the previous December, according to the report.

According to the firm, since the financial crisis began in 2008, there have been approximately 6.1 million completed foreclosures across the country; since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been about 8 million homes lost to foreclosure.

“Reflecting on the full-year foreclosure results for 2015, completed foreclosures are down more than 20 percent for the year, which is the lowest level since 2006,” said Frank Nothaft, an economist for CoreLogic, in the release.

CoreLogin CEO Anand Nallathambi, however, cautioned in the report that the changes also “drives a decline in the inventory of affordable for-sale homes” calling it a “growing issue that will limit a full housing recovery in the short term.”

According to the report, the five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures in 2015 were Florida (79,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (30,000), Ohio (24,000) and Georgia (24,000).

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Report: Home foreclosures show big decline in Kansas."