According to real estate analytics firm, CoreLogic, it looks like the number of foreclosures has dropped 64% from September 2010.

When Comes Normal?

While the number of completed foreclosures was down to 41,000 last November, a drop from 46,000 in November 2013, “It will be about two more years until we are back to historical norms,” said Molly Boesel, senior economist at CoreLogic.

What’s Normal?

Prior to the housing crisis, the average monthly foreclosure count was roughly 21,000. The rate of foreclosure is now down to what it was in 2007, right at the beginning of the crisis. According to Boesel foreclosure rates will likely “remain at this elevated rate, leveling off, until the pipeline of distressed loans, mostly from the worst lending of the housing boom, is cleared.”

The foreclosure inventory (the amount of homes in some stage of the foreclosure process) was roughly 567,000 last November. This compares with 880,000 in November 2013, marking a decrease of 35.5 percent. This has been falling on an annual basis for 37-consecutive months.

“At current foreclosure rates, we expect to see the foreclosure inventory in the U.S. to drop below 500,000 homes sometime in the first quarter of 2015, which would be another milestone in the healing of the housing market,” said president and CEO of CoreLogic, Anand Nallathambi.

Foreclosure Rate Across U.S.

Only the District of Columbia saw a rise in the foreclosure rate this past year. In every other state, the are fell. It should be noted that rates vary dramatically by state due to differing laws for processing foreclosed properties. Delays can push some states to have twice the national rate.

According to CoreLogic’s analytics, five states accounted for nearly half of the nation’s completed foreclosures. They were Florida (118,000), Michigan (50,000), Texas (36,000), California (29,000) and Ohio (29,000).

Source: CNBC, Foreclosures down, but will take 2 more years to normalize: CoreLogic, January 14, 2015