The past-due rate and foreclosure rate moved lower last month. But an indicator of upcoming foreclosure activity — foreclosure starts — climbed to the highest level in more than a year.
There were 3,628,000 residential loans that were either at least 30 days past due or in the process of foreclosure as of the end of January.
That was 60,000 fewer distressed mortgages than as of the end of last year. Compared to Jan. 31, 2014, the number of non-current loans has retreated by 687,000.
Black Knight Financial Services reported the performance metrics.
Based on the mortgage service providers figures, there were an estimated 50.6 million loans outstanding as of Jan. 31, off from roughly 50.9 million at the end of 2014.
January 2015’s total was comprised of 2,813,000 delinquent loans not yet in the foreclosure process and 815,000 loans in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory.
As a percentage of all outstanding mortgages, the non-current rate was 7.17 percent as of last month.
Delinquency improved from 7.25 percent a month earlier and tumbled from 8.62 percent a year earlier.
The non-current rate was highest in Mississippi: 14.19 percent. Next was New Jersey’s 11.87 percent rate, then 11.08 percent in Louisiana, 10.39 percent in New York and 10.21 percent in Maine.
At the other end of the spectrum was North Dakota, where just 2.42 percent of all loans were either 30 days past due or in the process of foreclosure.
The U.S. 30-day rate, excluding foreclosures, was 5.56 percent,
declining from 5.64 percent as of Dec. 31, 2014, and also better than 6.27 percent as of the same date in 2014.
The foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate, meanwhile, closed out January 2015 at 1.61 percent, the same as previously reported for the prior month — though Black Knight noted that there was a nominal 0.20 percent month-over-month decline.
Servicers have made a nice dent in the foreclosure rate since a year previous, when the rate was 2.35 percent.
However, foreclosure starts rose to 94,300 last month from
89,400 in December and approximately 94,100 in January 2014.
In fact, Black Knight said it was the highest level for foreclosure starts since December 2013 — when there were roughly 104,800 foreclosures initiated.
