Mortgage delinquency turned sharply higher last month even as the foreclosure inventory retreated to its lowest level in nearly seven years.
The rate of 30-day residential delinquency, including loans in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory,
finished November at 7.71 percent.
Home loan performance substantially deteriorated from the previous month, when the non-current rate was 7.13 percent.
The statistics were released Tuesday by Black Knight Financial Services.
Last month’s non-current rate was the highest since February, when 8.19 percent of of home loans were delinquent or in foreclosure.
Still, the rate sits well below the 8.95 percent in place as of the same month last year.
Mississippi’s 14.88 percent non-current rate was the highest of any state and worse than 13.83 percent in October.
In New Jersey, the delinquency rate was 12.41 percent, climbing from 11.78 percent a month earlier.
At 11.67 percent, Louisiana’s non-current rate was the third-highest in the nation, followed by New York’s 10.97 percent and Rhode Island’s 10.78 percent.
With 3,088,000 U.S. loans delinquent 30 days but not in foreclosure last month, the rate was 6.08 percent.
The last time the 30-day rate was that high was in January, when it stood at 6.27 percent.
Thirty-day delinquency was 5.44 percent in October and 6.45 percent in November 2013.
But the story was different for the foreclosure pre-sale inventory, which stood at 829,000 loans — the lowest it’s been since January 2008.
The foreclosure rate was 1.63 percent in November, 1.69 percent a month earlier and 2.50 percent a year earlier.
The 73,900 foreclosure starts last month were the fewest since May 2006.
