Delinquency and Foreclosure Rates Continue to Drop

Oct 08, 2019

New data from CoreLogic has determined 3.8 percent of mortgages were in some stage of delinquency in July, down 0.3 percent from one year earlier, while foreclosure inventory rate was 0.4 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from July 2018. The July foreclosure inventory rate tied the prior eight months as the lowest for any month since at least January 1999, while the nation's overall delinquency remains near the lowest level since at least 1999.

The rate for early-stage delinquencies was 1.8 percent in July 2019, down 0.1 percent from the previous year, while the share of mortgages 60 to 89 days past remained unchanged year-over-year at 0.6 percent. The serious delinquency rate of 1.3 percent was down from 1.6 percent one year ago and was the lowest for the month of July since 2005 when it was also 1.3 percent. The serious delinquency rate also tied the April, May and June 2019 rates as the lowest for any month since it was also 1.3 percent in August 2005.

However, four states posted small annual increases in overall delinquency rates in July: Vermont (0.5 percentage points), New Hampshire (0.2 percentage points), Iowa (0.1 percentage points) and Minnesota (0.1 percentage points).

“Homeowners have seen a big rise in home equity, which lowers foreclosure risk because owners have more ‘skin in the game,’” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Our latest Home Equity report found that between the first quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2019, average equity per borrower increased from $75,000 to $176,000 and rose $5,000 in the past year alone.”

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Phil Hall

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Oct 08, 2019

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