The national delinquency rate on first-lien mortgages fell to 4% in August, the lowest rate since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused mortgage delinquencies to spike in early 2020, Black Knight reported today.
Serious delinquencies — including those in active forbearance — fell by 108,000 from July. While they have fallen by more than 1 million from last August, they are still roughly 930,000 above pre-pandemic levels, the data and analytics company said.
Black Knight’s report is its first look at August 2021 end-of-month statistics, derived from its database representing the majority of the national mortgage market.
There were 7,100 foreclosure starts in August, the most in eight months after foreclosure moratoria on federally backed loans were lifted at the end of July, Black Knight said. Despite that increase —driven primarily by restarting the process on loans that were in foreclosure before the moratoria were imposed — start volumes remained 80% below the levels of a year earlier, the company said.
In addition, while — rising by 2,000 to 142,000 — volumes remained near record lows and are down 44% from pre-pandemic levels, Black Knight said.
Prepayment activity rose by nearly 9% in August, with interest rates — which have held below 3% in recent months — continuing to spur both refinance and purchase activity.
Overall, more than 2.26 million properties nationwide in August were 30 or more days past due on their loan payments or in foreclosure, Black Knight said. That was down by 82,000 from July, but down more than 1.6 million in August 2020.
The top five states by non-current percentage — combining foreclosures and delinquencies as a percentage of active loans — were Mississippi at 7.71%, Louisiana at 7.08%, Oklahoma at 5.81%, Hawaii at 5.75% and New York at 5.64%.
The bottom five states were Idaho at .207%, Colorado at 2.43, Washington and Utah at 2.55%, and Montana at 2.67%.
