The number of U.S. homes stuck in foreclosure ticked down slightly in February compared with the same month a year earlier, new data show.
About 1.4 million homes, or 3.4% of all homes with a mortgage, were in foreclosure last month, compared with 1.5 million in February 2011, Santa Ana research firm CoreLogic said Thursday. That was flat compared with January.
Banks completed about 65,000 foreclosures last month, or about 1,000 more than in February 2011, and 10,000 more than in January, the research firm said. At that pace lenders are set to foreclose on some 670,000 homes this year.
Banks are also selling foreclosed homes at a faster clip, said Anand Nallathambi, chief executive of CoreLogic. That plus "better employment news and continued historically low interest rates are all positive signs of improvement in the housing economy," Nallathambi said.
