The rate of serious mortgage delinquency fell to the lowest level in nearly eight years. But there was a seasonal surge in repossessions.
As of Sept. 30, the rate of 90-day delinquency on home loans landed at 3.4 percent.
That put the level of serious delinquency on residential loans at the lowest rate since December 2007, according to historical data.
Details of U.S. mortgage performance were discussed in the National Foreclosure Report September 2015 from CoreLogic Inc.
Ninety-day delinquency was previously reported at 3.5 percent
for August 2015.
In September 2014, serious delinquency was 4.2 percent, according to prior reports.
New Jersey had the worst 90-day rate during the latest month: 8.0 percent.
New York was close behind at 6.5 percent. After that was Florida’s 5.8 percent, Mississippi’s 5.0 percent and Maine’s 4.9 percent.
Serious delinquency was lowest in North Dakota at 1.0 percent.
Mortgage servicers finished September 2015 with 470,000 U.S. homes in some stage of the foreclosure process.
A month earlier, there were an upwardly revised 476,000 homes in the foreclosure inventory.
A year earlier, the foreclosure inventory stood at an upwardly revised 621,000.
The decline from September 2014 in the foreclosure inventory was the 47th year-over-year reduction.
The foreclosure rate was 1.2 percent during the most-recent month — the lowest rate since December 2007 and little changed from the previously reported rate for August 2015.
In
September 2014, the foreclosure inventory rate was 1.6 percent.
A 4.6 percent foreclosure rate in New Jersey was the worst in the nation. Next was New York’s 3.7 percent, then 2.6 percent in Florida, 2.5 percent in Hawaii and 2.4 percent in the District of Columbia.
At just 0.3 percent, Alaska had the lowest rate.
September 2015 saw 55,000 U.S. foreclosures completed, soaring by half from a month earlier, when there were an upwardly revised 37,000 real-estate-owned filings.
CoreLogic explained in the report that the month-over-month surge was partly due to an annual public auctioning of thousands of tax-foreclosed properties in Wayne County, Michigan, where Detroit is located.
Repossessions numbered 67,000 in the same month last year. The year-earlier figure was revised up from 46,000 originally reported.
From Jan. 1, 2015, through the end of September, servicers completed 361,000 foreclosures.