Foreclosures, be gone: Miami-Dade’s foreclosure rate shrinks again in August

August marked another month of dwindling foreclosures in Miami-Dade County, according to a new report from real estate research firm CoreLogic.

The report states Miami-Dade’s inventory of foreclosures fell to 2.3 percent of the county’s housing stock in August, a 3.6 percentage point drop from August 2015.

Loans delinquent past 90 days, often seen as the precursor to foreclosures, also continued to decline in August. The county’s delinquency rate dipped 2.2 percentage points year-over-year to 5.8 percent.

Miami-Dade was once a hotspot for foreclosure activity during the housing market crash, and until this year held a top place in the nation for its ratio of lender-owned homes. Its strengthening housing market has helped flush those distressed properties out of the market, in part leading to higher housing prices.

Even so, the county’s foreclosure and delinquency rates are still above national levels. CoreLogic reports that for August, the U.S. foreclosure inventory sat at 0.9 percent, while the ratio of serious delinquencies sat at 2.8 percent.

“With the foreclosure inventory now under 1 percent nationally, the need to boost single-family housing stocks through new construction will become more acute in the coming months and years,” Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic’s CEO, said in the report. — Sean Stewart-Muniz