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Nationally, the inventory of previously occupied homes on the market was 10 percent below prior-year levels in May, according to the National Association of Realtors. So the potential for more foreclosures going on sale will likely be welcome news to would-be homebuyers in markets where there is a tight supply of available homes. The number of homes that entered the foreclosure process in June was down 21 percent from May and about 45 percent below June 2012's total. Lenders repossessed 35,507 homes last month, down nearly 9 percent from May and a drop of 35 percent from a year earlier. That's still short of the 25,000 or so a month that Blomquist considers the benchmark for foreclosures in a "normal" housing market. At the height of the housing boom in 2006, completed foreclosures averaged 22,000 a month. They peaked in September 2010 at 102,000. Tighter lending standards for home loans since the housing bubble burst have helped slow the pace of foreclosures. About 75 percent of the 824,292 U.S. homes in the foreclosure process as of June are tied to loans that were originated between 2004 and 2008. "That's a good sign that the lending has much improved and we're not seeing high foreclosure rates on mortgages that have been taken out since 2008," Blomquist said.
[Associated
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