Nearly 100,000 properties have been eliminated from the nation’s shadow inventory during the latest three-month period — bringing the inventory to a three-year low and helping home prices in some of the worst markets.
As of April, 1.52 million properties were lurking in the shadow inventory.
The total included 0.72 million seriously delinquent loans, 0.41 million loans in some stage of foreclosure and 0.39 million held as real-estate-owned assets by mortgage servicers but not yet listed in multiple listing services.
Another 1.3 million distressed properties were listed in multiple listings services, according to CoreLogic, which reports the data every three months.
The pending supply of distressed properties has been reduced from January, when the shadow inventory stood at 1.61 million properties.
“The flow of new seriously delinquent (90 days or more) loans into the shadow inventory has been approximately offset by the equal volume of distressed (short and real estate owned) sales,” the report stated.
A year earlier, the inventory stood at 1.8 million properties.
CoreLogic Chief Economist Mark Fleming explained in the report that the shadow inventory has fallen 28 percent since peaking at 2.1 million units in January 2010. The decline has eased downward price pressure in deeply distressed markets like Arizona, California and Nevada — which are now seeing price increases.
The dollar amount of April’s shadow inventory worked out to $246 billion in the latest report, falling from $270 billion in the same month last year to a three-year low.
The latest numbers indicate a four-month supply, declining from the six-month supply in January and in April 2011 and the lowest level in nearly three years.
