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38 COMPLETED FORECLOSURES DECLINE BUT REMAIN DOUBLE PRE-RECESSION LEVELS While completed foreclosures on residential homes totaled 40,000 for April and have been steadily falling monthly for the last four years, they are still nearly double their pre-recession average per month, according to CoreLogic's April 2015 National Foreclosure Report released in June. Completed foreclosures, which are a measure of homes actually lost to foreclosure, declined by 20 percent year-over-year in April 2015 (from 50,000 a year earlier), but remain elevated. ey averaged about 21,000 per month from 2000 to 2006, before the crisis. "Despite a slow and steady improvement in most housing market fundamentals, too many families remain in default of their mortgage obligations," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "e percent of homeowners with a mortgage that have missed three or more monthly payments or are in foreclosure proceedings dropped to 3.6 percent in our April data. While well below the record peak of nearly 9 percent and the lowest in more than seven years, it remains about double the pre-2007 rate." e 12-month sum of completed foreclosures for the period ending April 30, 2015, was 16.5 percent lower than the same period a year earlier—538,000 compared to 644,000. Florida accounted for about one- fifth of those completed foreclosures in the last 12 months with 106,000, according to CoreLogic. South Dakota was the state with the lowest total of completed foreclosures in the 12-month period ending April 30, 2015, with 20. Foreclosure inventory, which represents the number of homes that are in some state of foreclosure, declined by 25 percent year- over-year nationwide in April, from 694,000 homes to about 521,000 homes, representing 1.4 percent of all residential homes with a mortgage. irty-one states had a foreclosure inventory rate lower than the national rate of 1.4 percent in April, while six states experienced a year-over-year foreclosure inventory of 30 percent of more, led by Florida (45.6 percent) and Connecticut (35.8 percent). Foreclosure inventory has now declined year-over-year for 42 consecutive months, including April. "By mid-2011, after the Great Recession and at the trough of the house price collapse, more than 1.5 million homes were in the foreclosure pipeline," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. "Employment recovery, foreclosure alternatives, and home-value gains have worked to reduce that inventory. At CoreLogic, we found that April's foreclosure inventory was down 25 percent from a year ago, falling to one-third the mid-2011 level." e number of mortgages in serious delinquency in April 2015, about 1.38 million, was about 3.6 percent of all homes with a mortgage and represented a 22.1 percent decline from April 2014. New Jersey had the highest serious delinquency rate among states for April 2015 at 5.1 percent, followed by New York (3.8 percent), Florida (3.1 percent), Hawaii (2.6 percent), and Washington, D.C. (2.5 percent). e states with the lowest serious delinquency rates were Alaska (0.3 percent), Nebraska, North Dakota, and Colorado (0.4 percent each), and Minnesota (0.5 percent). Among metros, Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater, Florida, had the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12-month period ending April 30, 2015, with 16,664. e state also reported a serious delinquency rate of 7.7 percent and a foreclosure inventory rate of 3.9 percent. FREDDIE MAC OFFERS DISTRESSED HOMEOWNERS A GUIDE TO FORECLOSURES AND ALTERNATIVES Freddie Mac is now offering distressed homeowners a complete guide to foreclosure and how to avoid it as part of a new website launched in June as a one-stop resource for homeowners. e "MyHome by Freddie Mac" site offers homeowners a number of options under the "Foreclosure and Alternatives" tab, including information on who to contact for help as well as explanations of non-foreclosure solutions that include both home retention and home forfeiture options. On the website, Freddie Mac first advises borrowers to take stock of their financial situ- ation and determine what they can and cannot pay for as far as home-related expenses, such as major and minor repairs. If a borrower is unable to meet his or her financial obligations, Freddie Mac recommends reaching out to the lender as soon as possible. "Your lender wants to help you with your mortgage," Freddie Mac said on the site. "ey do not want your home or the expenses that come with foreclosure." Borrowers are warned to watch for the warning signs of foreclosure and to seek help if they look familiar. If a borrower is in need of help avoiding foreclosure, Freddie Mac lists several options to contact for help: the lender, housing counselors, Freddie Mac borrower help centers, and housing finance agencies. Home retention solutions include forbear- ance, reinstatements, repayment plans, and modifications, such as the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Non-foreclosure solutions in which the home is forfeited include short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure. e site provides several resources for borrowers so they will understand all of these options and know how to prepare their financial information to meet with their lender. For those who cannot avoid foreclosure, Freddie Mac offers a list of what to expect after foreclosure and information on how foreclosure affects the borrower's credit, how to rebuild credit, finding a home after foreclosure, and re- entering the housing market (Recent research from TransUnion indicated that about 1.5 million "boomerang buyers" negatively affected by the housing crisis will re-enter the housing market in the next three years.). e site also includes other options for homes lost to foreclosure. Freddie Mac encour- ages borrowers to find out who acquired the home after the foreclosure to increase options available; for example, if Freddie Mac acquired the home, options may include renting the home while it's being marketed for sale, receiv- ing "cash for keys," or re-purchasing the home.

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