Home loan performance improved during the first three months of this year except on mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. All government mortgages saw an increase in the foreclosure rate.
Borrowers who were past due at least a month on their residential loans or in the foreclosure inventory as of the first quarter accounted for 7.76 percent of all outstanding home loans.
Performance metrics were spelled out in the National Delinquency Survey Q1 2015 from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The distressed ratio retreated from the final quarter of last year, when it was 7.95 percent.
More apparent was the reduction in delinquency versus the same date in 2014, a point at which the rate stood at 8.76 percent.
First-quarter 2015 delinquency included a 5.54 percent total past-due rate excluding the foreclosure inventory.
The U.S. rate was lower than 5.68 percent
in the fourth-quarter 2014 and 6.11 percent in the first-quarter 2014.
Mississippi’s 9.15 percent first-quarter rate excluding foreclosures was the highest in the country.
Alabama’s 7.25 percent was followed by Louisiana’s 7.09 percent, Georgia’s 6.80 percent and Rhode Island’s 6.54 percent
At 1.82 percent, North Dakota had the lowest rate.
Thirty-day delinquency on U.S. prime mortgages, excluding foreclosures, declined seven basis points from the fourth quarter to 3.18 percent. Subprime delinquency dropped 90 BPS to 17.60 percent, while Federal Housing Administration-insured loan delinquency improved 63 BPS to 9.10 percent as of the first-quarter 2015.
But the 30-day rate on VA mortgages worsened by 4 BPS to 5.02 percent.
Also factored in to the total U.S. rate was a 2.22 percent foreclosure rate as of March 31, 2015, five BPS better than at the end of last year and 43 BPS better than as of the same date last year.
New Jersey had he worst foreclosure rate: 7.67 percent. After that was 5.51 percent in New York, followed by 4.82 percent in Florida, 3.51 percent in Maine and 3.42 percent in Washington, D.C.
In Wyoming, the rate was 0.62 percent — lower than in any other state.
The foreclosure rate on prime home loans was 1.32 percent as of the most-recent period, four BPS better than the fourth-quarter 2014.
Subprime mortgages had a foreclosure rate that was 8.96 percent, an improvement over 9.63 percent at the end of last year.
But the FHA foreclosure rate worsened to 2.64 percent from 2.52 percent, and the VA rate was two BPS worse at 1.41 percent.
