A smaller share of mortgages were considered seriously delinquency last month. At the same time, the volume of completed foreclosures increased.
Residential loans that were past due at least 90 days accounted for 4.2 percent of all U.S. home loans in September.
The rate of serious delinquency has not been this low since July 2008.
Ninety-day delinquency was previously reported at 4.3 percent for August and 5.2 percent in September 2013.
CoreLogic Inc. reported the loan performance metrics.
The highest 90-day rate in the country was in New Jersey: 9.2 percent. Florida’s rate was 8.6 percent, then 7.4 percent in New York, 6.1 percent in Maryland and 5.7 percent in both Connecticut and Nevada.
Around 607,000 U.S. loans were in foreclosure as of last month, fewer than the 625,000 during August. In September of last year, 924,000 foreclosures were in process. The inventory has moved down from a year earlier for 35 consecutive months.
As a percentage of outstanding loans, 1.6 percent of loans were in foreclosure, unchanged from the previous month but retreating from 2.3 percent one year prior.
In New Jersey, the foreclosure inventory rate was 5.7 percent — the worst of any state. Florida’s 4.4 percent followed. Next was New York’s 4.1 percent, Hawaii’s 2.9 percent and Maine’s 2.7 percent.
An 0.4 percent rate in Nebraska was the lowest in the nation.
Mortgage servicers completed 46,000 U.S. foreclosures during the most-recent month — worsening from 44,000 the previous month.
But real-estate-owned filings retreated from a year earlier, when 66,000 repossessions were made.
From Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, there have been 409,000 foreclosures completed.
