A number of factors helped pull down delinquency on residential loans to the lowest level in years. Loan performance on Veterans Affairs loans, however, deteriorated.
Total mortgage delinquency of at least 30 days, including foreclosures, was 8.76 percent as of the first-quarter 2014.
That was a huge improvement from the final three-month period of last year, when the rate was 9.25 percent.
The findings were outlined in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey Q1 2014.
In the first-quarter 2013, the rate was 10.80 percent.
“A more stable and stronger job market, coupled with strong credit standards on new loans, has kept delinquency rates on recent vintages low, while the portfolio of loans made pre-crisis is steadily being resolved,” MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni said in the report. “Increasing home prices, caused by tight inventories of homes for sale, have helped build an equity cushion for many new borrowers and have helped some homeowners who had been underwater regain positive equity in their properties. The increase in values also helps to facilitate sales of distressed properties, which may further expedite the pace of resolution of pre-crisis loans.”
On just prime mortgages, the rate was 5.22 percent, better than the previous quarter’s 5.34 percent.
The subprime rate was 29.80 percent, falling from 31.25 percent in the final quarter of 2013.
Delinquency on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration came in at 12.82 percent, dropping from 13.74 percent three months earlier.
The rate on mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs was 7.09 percent, up 2 BPS from the prior period.
The most recent U.S. total rate reflected a seasonally adjusted 30-day rate, excluding foreclosures, of 6.11 percent. That was the lowest delinquency rate since the fourth-quarter 2007, when the rate was 5.82 percent.
A 10.46 percent 30-day rate in Mississippi was the highest in the nation. After that was Alabama’s 7.89 percent, followed by Georgia’s 7.61 percent, Louisiana’s 7.67 percent and Tennessee’s 7.34 percent.
At 2.13 percent, North Dakota had the lowest rate in the nation.
Also reflected in the latest U.S. rate was a foreclosure inventory rate of 2.65 percent. There was no seasonal adjustment in the foreclosure rate, which was at its lowest level since it stood at 2.47 percent in the first-quarter 2008.
“Judicial states continue to account for the majority of loans in foreclosure, making up almost 70 percent of loans in foreclosure, while only representing about 40 percent of loans serviced,” Fratantoni said.
New Jersey’s 8.12 percent foreclosure rate was higher than any other state. Florida followed with a 7.62 percent rate. Next was 6.11 percent in New York, 4.71 percent in Maine and 4.19 percent in Connecticut.
Wyoming’s 0.52 percent foreclosure rate was lowest.
