January 2024 started on a low note, at least when considering mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures nationwide. In January 2024, 2.8% of all mortgages in the U.S. were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure), unchanged year-over-year from January 2023 and down by -0.3 percentage points month over month from December 2023.
That’s according to CoreLogic’s latest Loan Performance Insights Report, released on Thursday.
In January 2024, the U.S. delinquency and transition rates and their year-over-year changes, were as follows:
- Early-Stage Delinquencies (30 to 59 days past due): 1.4%, up from 1.3% in January 2023.
- Adverse Delinquency (60 to 89 days past due): 0.5%, up from 0.4% in January 2023.
- Serious Delinquency (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure): 1%, down from 1.2% in January 2023 and a high of 4.3% in August 2020.
- Foreclosure Inventory Rate (the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process): 0.3%, unchanged from January 2023.
- Transition Rate (the share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due): 0.6%, unchanged from January 2023.
As was the case for most of 2023, U.S. mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates remained near an all-time low in January. A recovering job market is helping many homeowners pay their mortgages on time, with the U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics putting the national unemployment rate at less than 4% for the past two years. However, CoreLogic observed a dozen states and a substantial number of metro areas posted year-over-year increases in overall delinquency rates, indicating that the current employment situation does not benefit all Americans equally.
“Nationwide, the overall mortgage delinquency rate held steady in January, and the serious delinquency rate fell from a year ago,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic. “However, one-third of metros posted an increase in the overall delinquency rate from one year earlier, and a handful reported an increase in serious delinquency rates.”
“While the sizable delinquency rate uptick in the Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii metro is a result of last year’s wildfire,” Boesel continued, “increases in other areas of the country could be a sign that borrowers are experiencing budget strains.”
Other takeaways:
- Twelve states saw overall mortgage delinquency rates increase year over year in January. The states with the largest gains were Hawaii and Idaho (both up by 0.2 percentage points). Nineteen states showed no change in overall delinquency rates year over year. The remaining states’ annual delinquency rates declined between -0.3 percentage points and -0.1 percentage points.
- In January, 124 U.S. metro areas posted increases in overall year-over-year delinquency rates. The metro with the largest delinquency rate increase was Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii (up by two percentage points), followed by Jackson, Michigan and New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana (both up by 0.6 percentage points).
