Thirty-day mortgage delinquency soared to a two-year high, while serious delinquency climbed to a 19-month high. But foreclosure starts were the fewest since the recession.
Last year finished with 2.743 million U.S. single-family loans that were either at least
30 days delinquent or in the foreclosure inventory.
The non-current count consisted of 2.412 million loans that were at least 30 days past due but not in foreclosure and 331,000 units in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory.
Based on the data reported Tuesday by Black Knight Inc., Mortgage Daily estimates that around 51.175 million residential loans were outstanding as of Dec. 31, 2017.
Black Knight’s data indicate that the non-current rate was 5.36 percent at the end of last month, worsening 15 basis points from Nov. 30. But compared to Dec. 31, 2016, the rate retreated one basis point.
At 11.32 percent, Mississippi’s non-current rate was the worst in the nation. After that was Louisiana’s 9.79 percent, followed by Florida’s 9.26 percent, Alabama’s 7.83 percent and West Virginia’s 7.79 percent.
Colorado’s 2.24 percent non-current rate was the lowest of any state.
Included in the year-end 2017 U.S. non-current rate was a 4.71 percent 30-day rate excluding foreclosures — the highest it’s been since it was 5.09 percent in January 2016. Thirty-day delinquency jumped from 4.55 percent a month earlier and 4.42 percent as of year-end 2016.
Based on Black Knight’s data, Mortgage Daily estimates that the 90-day rate including foreclosures ended last year at 1.42 percent — its highest level since it was 1.42 percent in May 2016. The deterioration was “driven by both continued hurricane-related fallout as well as seasonal and calendar-related pressures.”
Black Knight reported a
foreclosure inventory rate of 0.65 percent, a basis point lower than as of Nov. 30 and 30 BPS better than as of Dec. 31, 2016. Based on historical data maintained by Mortgage Daily, the foreclosure rate was the lowest since at least 2015 and likely the lowest since the recession.
The 44,500 foreclosure starts last month were a “a post-recession low,” Black Knight said. During all of 2017, there were 649,400 foreclosure starts,
an improvement over the 764,500 foreclosures initiated in 2016.
