Not only did the rate of mortgage delinquency decline in April, it has retreated for seven consecutive months. The latest reading reflected a drop in both new delinquencies and foreclosures.
After falling below 5 million in March to 4,997,000, the number of residential loans that were at least 30 days past due or in foreclosure receded to 4,699,000 last month.
Even more impressive was the improvement from April 2012, when 5,570,000 mortgages were at least a month delinquent.
The statistics were reported Wednesday by Lender Processing Services Inc. and extrapolated from LPS Applied Analytics’ loan-level database, which reportedly represents around 70 percent of the overall market.
LPS said the non-current rate, which reflects both 30-day delinquency and the foreclosure inventory, was 9.38 percent in April, decreasing from the prior month’s 9.96 percent.
The rate has fallen each month since September 2012, when it stood at 11.27 percent.
The non-current rate tumbled from a year earlier, when 11.26 percent of all U.S. home loans were past due or in foreclosure.
Florida, New Jersey, Mississippi, Nevada and New York all maintained their standings as the states with the highest non-current rates, according to the report.
But performance continued to be best in Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota and North Dakota.
Looking at just 30-day delinquency excluding foreclosures, the rate fell to 6.21 percent from the prior month’s 6.59 percent.
In the same month last year, the 30-day rate was 7.12 percent.
The foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate, meanwhile, fell to 3.17 percent in April from 3.37 percent in March and was 4.14 percent a year earlier.
