Thirty-day delinquency jumped last month more than it has in a decade. But the level of foreclosures is now lower than before the recession.

Residential loans that were either at least 30 days delinquent or in the foreclosure inventory numbered 2.317 million as of Sept. 30, Black Knight Inc. reported.

The U.S. non-current inventory
consisted of 2.049 million mortgages delinquent but not in foreclosure, and another 268,000 loans in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory.

Using Black Knight’s data, Mortgage Daily estimates that 51.604 million home loans were outstanding.

Black Knight reported that September’s non-current rate was 4.49 percent. The rate soared 43 basis points
from the preceding month. But a 61-basis-point improvement was made versus the same month during 2017.

Mississippi carried the highest non-current rate of any state: 10.33 percent. Next was Louisiana’s 8.19 percent, followed by Alabama’s 7.14 percent, West Virginia’s 6.80 percent and Arkansas’ 6.32 percent.

Colorado’s 2.01 percent non-current rate was the best in the country.

One component of the U.S. non-current rate is the 30-day rate, excluding foreclosures, which was 3.97 percent, skyrocketing 45 BPS from August, “the largest single-month rise since November 2008.” Still, 30-day delinquency was down 43 BPS from September 2018.

Ninety-day delinquency, including foreclosures, was 0.99 percent.

The second component of the non-current rate is the foreclosure inventory rate, which dipped 2 BPS to 0.52 percent. The
foreclosure rate dropped 18 BPS versus September 2017.

At 40,000, foreclosure starts hit a nearly 18-year low and now stand at 435,100 for the first-nine months of 2018.

It was the first time since the financial crisis that both the number of homes in the foreclosure inventory and the foreclosure rate have both fallen below their pre-recession averages.