Dive Brief:

• The national inventory of foreclosed homes dropped in June to its lowest level since December 2007 and is down 63.3% from its 2011 peak, according to CoreLogic’s latest National Foreclosure Report.

• As of June, the national foreclosure inventory included 472,000 homes — approximately 1.2% of all U.S. homes with a mortgage. In addition, 1.3 million mortgages — 3.5% of the U.S. total — were 90 days or more past due, which is considered seriously delinquent. That number was down 23.3% from June 2014, and is the lowest serious delinquency rate since January 2008.

• On a nationwide basis, the improvement has been a bit spotty. In Denver and San Francisco, for example, the foreclosure rate fell to 0.3% in June, but in Tampa, the rate was 3.5%, and in New York’s Nassau and Suffolk counties, it rose to 4.8%.

Dive Insight:

As much as homebuilders — and their clients — complain that ultra-tight, post-recession lending standards since 2009 have prevented too many qualified borrowers from becoming homeowners, the careful underwriting process seems to be contributing to an improvement in foreclosure and delinquency rates.

Plus, the rash of foreclosures resulting from the bursting of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis is winding down, as most of the at-risk homeowners went through the process in prior years.

Also contributing to the steady decline of homes lost to nonpayment are an improving economy and gains in employment, which mean more homeowners have jobs and can afford to meet their financial obligations.

Still, the 43,000 completed foreclosures in June topped May’s activity by 4.8%  and were double the average monthly rate before 2006, CoreLogic reported.