Housing

Mortgage Delinquencies Reach 10-Year Low

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The share of home mortgage loan payments that are 30 days or more past due fell from 5.3% in June 2016 to 4.5% in June 2017. The foreclosure inventory rate fell from 0.9% to 0.7% in the same period.

The share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due was 0.9% in June 2017, unchanged compared with June 2016. This year’s rate is below the transition rate of 1.2% just before the housing crisis struck, and well below the peak rate of 2.0% in November 2008.

The data were reported Tuesday by CoreLogic in its Loan Performance Insights report. Early-stage delinquencies, defined as 30 to 59 days past due, were trending slightly lower in June 2017 at 2.0% compared with the year-ago rate of 2.1%. The share of mortgages that were 60 to 89 days past due in June 2017 was 0.6%, down 0.1 percentage points compared with last year’s rate. According to CoreLogic, measuring early-stage delinquency rates is important for analyzing the health of the mortgage market.

CoreLogic’s chief economist, Dr. Frank Nothaft, said:

The CoreLogic Home Price Index increased 6 percent and payroll employment grew by 2.2 million jobs in the year ending June 2017, supporting further rate declines in delinquency rates. The forecast for the coming year includes 5 percent home-price appreciation and further job growth, putting renewed downward pressure on mortgage delinquency rates.

Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, added:

After peaking at 3.6% in December 2010, June’s 0.7 percent foreclosure rate was the lowest in 10 years. Across the 100 most populous metro areas, the foreclosure rate varied from 0.1 percent in Denver-Aurora-Lakewood to 2.2 percent in New York-Newark-Jersey City.

The three states with the lowest 30-plus delinquency rate in January 2017 were North Dakota (2.0%), Colorado (2.2%) and Montana (2.5%). The 30-plus delinquency rate was highest in Mississippi (8.2%), Louisiana (7.6%) and New Jersey (7.0%).

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