The last time U.S. home loans were performing this well was in 2007, while it’s been nearly as long since the foreclosure rate has been so favorable.
The portion of the U.S. residential loan portfolio that was either 30 days or more past due or in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory was 7.65 percent in March.
The non-current rate tumbled from 8.19 percent in February.
Delinquency has plunged more than 200 basis points from March 2013, when the non-current rate was 9.96 percent.
The performance data was reported by Black Knight Financial Services. Year-earlier numbers were reported by Black Knight-predecessor Lenders Processing Service.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company said its numbers were derived from a database that represents roughly 70 percent of the overall market.
In Mississippi, non-current loans accounted for 13.39 percent of all home loans, the worst rate of any state. New Jersey was close behind with its 12.93 percent rate, followed by Florida’s 12.10 percent, New York’s 11.09 percent and Maine’s 10.58 percent.
The best loan performance was in North Dakota, where the non-current rate was 2.51 percent.
Across the United States, 3.84 million loans were non-current — the smallest number since November 2007. The total included 2.77 million loans past-due at least 30 days but not in foreclosure and 1.07 million properties in the pre-sale foreclosure inventory.
Excluding the pre-sale inventory, delinquency was 5.52 percent last month — the lowest rate since October 2007. Thirty-day delinquency was 5.97 percent in February and 6.59 percent in March 2013.
The rate on the foreclosure pre-sale inventory was 2.13 percent — the best level since 2008. The previous month’s rate was 2.35 percent, and the year-earlier rate was 3.37 percent. (Mortgage Daily mistakenly originally reported the March 2014 foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate at 1.83 percent)
Black Knight said foreclosure starts have retreated to a 7.5-year low.
