The quarterly rate of 30-day delinquency and foreclosures fell to the lowest levels in seven years. Past-due payments on government-insured loans, however, worsened.
Borrowers whose home loans were delinquent at least a month or in the foreclosure
inventory accounted for 7.95 percent of all borrowers in the fourth-quarter 2014.
The past-due rate improved compared to the previous quarter, when it came in at 8.24 percent.
In the final quarter of 2013, total delinquency was 9.25 percent.
The performance data was laid out in
the National Delinquency Survey Q4 2014 from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
On just prime mortgages, the rate fell 18 basis points to 4.61 percent and was 73 BPS better than in the final quarter of 2013.
The subprime rate
tumbled 43 BPS from the third quarter to 28.13 percent. Subprime delinquency plunged 312 BPS from the end of 2013.
Mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration saw delinquency retreat 17 BPS to
12.25 percent. The year-over-year decline on FHA loans was 149 BPS.
Total delinquency on mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs
fell 39 BPS to end last year at 6.37 percent. The VA rate has fallen 70 BPS from the end of 2013.
The latest figure for all loan types reflected a seasonally adjusted 30-day rate, excluding
the foreclosure inventory, of 5.68 percent.
Thirty day delinquency was last this low in the third-quarter 2007, when the rate was 5.59 percent. At the time, ironically, the third-quarter 2007 rate was higher than it had been in more than two decades.
The 30-day rate was 5.85 percent in the third-quarter 2014 and 6.39 percent in the fourth-quarter 2013.
Thirty-day delinquency on FHA-insured loans worsened, however, by 4 BPS between the third and fourth quarters.
Mississippi’s 10.76 percent 30-day rate was the worst in the country. Alabama was the No. 2 state with an 8.41 percent rate. Next was 8.37 percent in Louisiana, 7.91 percent in Georgia and 7.86 percent in Indiana.
North Dakota had the lowest 30-day rate: 2.28 percent. After that was Alaska’s 2.95 percent rate, followed by South Dakota’s 3.03 percent, Montana’s 3.17 percent and Hawaii’s 3.35 percent.
Also reflected in the fourth-quarter 2014 total U.S. delinquency rate was a 2.27
foreclosure inventory rate, improving from 2.39 percent three months earlier and 2.86 percent one year earlier.
The foreclosure rate was last this low in the fourth-quarter 2007, when it landed at 2.04 percent. At the time, that was the worst rate on record.
New Jersey had a higher foreclosure rate than any other state: 7.76 percent. Next was New York’s 5.60 percent. Florida followed with a 5.40 percent rate, then 3.46 percent in Connecticut and 3.44 percent in Hawaii.
Wyoming’s 0.58 percent rate was the lowest foreclosure rate in the nation.
