For the third month in a row, the share of mortgages that were past due at least one month or in the foreclosure process has moved lower.
There were 2.605 million residential loans that were at least 30 days delinquent or in the foreclosure inventory
as of the end of February.
The non-current loan count declined from 2.643 million a month earlier. An even bigger improvement was made from 2.907 million a year earlier.
The statistics were reported Thursday by Black Knight Financial Services.
Included in last month’s total were 2.135 million loans at least 30 days past due but not in foreclosure and 0.470 million loans in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory.
February 2017’s total brought the non-current rate to 5.14 percent, falling 6 basis points from Jan. 31. There has been a drop in the rate each month since November 2016, when it was 5.44 percent.
The non-current rate has declined 61 basis points compared to February 2016.
In Mississippi, the non-current rate as of Feb. 28, 2017, was 11.06 percent
— worse than any other state. Next was Louisiana’s 9.72 percent, then Alabama’s 7.82 percent, West Virginia’s 7.45 percent and New Jersey’s 7.44 percent.
At just 2.37 percent, the lowest non-current rate was in North Dakota.
Last month’s non-current U.S. rate reflected a 4.21 percent 30-day rate excluding foreclosures. Thirty-day delinquency
improved from 4.25 percent the previous month and 4.45 percent a year previous.
The other component of the non-current rate, the foreclosure inventory rate, retreated to 0.93 percent from 0.95 percent at the end of January 2017 and
1.30 percent at the same point last year.
February 2017’s ninety-day delinquency rate was an estimated 2.19 percent based on an analysis of Black Knight’s data.
The 57,900 foreclosure starts last month brought the year-to-date total to 128,300.
