Even though the foreclosure rate fell to a nine-year low and foreclosure starts sank to a 28-year low, quarterly 30-day mortgage delinquency spiked.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on home loans, including loans in the foreclosure inventory, closed out the fourth quarter of last year at
6.33 percent.
The non-current mortgage rate deteriorated compared to the end of the previous three-month period, when it came in at 6.07 percent.
But an improvement was made versus year-end 2015, when the rate was 6.54 percent.
Those performance statistics were outlined in the National Delinquency Survey Q4 2016 from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The survey reflected 38 million residential first mortgages reported by around a hundred lenders.
The most-recent non-current rate reflected a 4.80 percent seasonally adjusted 30-day rate, excluding foreclosures. The 30-day rate leapt from 4.52 percent in the prior period and was also higher than 4.77 percent a year prior.
On prime mortgages, 30-day delinquency was 3.07 percent, while the subprime rate was 14.72 percent. Thirty-day delinquency on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration was 9.02 percent, and mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs had a 4.00 percent rate.
On all loans, 30-day
delinquency in New Jersey was 8.28 percent — the worst of any state. New York’s rate was 6.57 percent, then 5.23 percent in Maine, 4.82 percent in Louisiana and 4.55 percent in Mississippi.
At 1.03 percent, Colorado had the lowest 30-day rate.
The U.S. foreclosure inventory rate was 1.53 percent as of the fourth-quarter 2016, improving from 1.55 percent three months earlier and 1.77 percent one year earlier.
MBA noted that it was the lowest foreclosure rate since the second-quarter 2007, when the rate was 1.40 percent.
The foreclosure rate was 0.92 percent on prime loans, 6.94 percent on subprime mortgages, 2.12 percent on FHA loans and 1.11 percent on VA mortgages.
At 5.42 percent, the foreclosure rate was highest in New Jersey. After that was 4.28 percent in New York, then 3.02 percent in Maine, 2.66 percent in Hawaii and 2.54 percent in the District of Columbia.
Colorado’s 0.40 percent foreclosure rate was the lowest.
Foreclosures were started on 0.28 percent of loans during the fourth-quarter 2016 —
the lowest rate since the fourth-quarter 1988.
