Mortgage delinquencies decline for 16th consecutive month.

CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights Report for July 2022 has found that for the month of July 2022, 3% of all mortgages in the U.S. were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure), representing a 1.2-percentage point decrease compared to 4.2% in July 2021. The data in this report accounts for only first liens against a property and does not include secondary liens.

The delinquency, transition and foreclosure rates are measured only against homes that have an outstanding mortgage. Homes without mortgage liens are not subject to foreclosure and are, therefore, excluded from the analysis. “Early-stage delinquencies are showing a small but clear increasing trend on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis,” said Molly Boesel, Principal Economist at CoreLogic. “While the share of mortgages that are 30 to 89 days past due remains below the pre-pandemic level, the slight increase is occurring in most areas of the country and could indicate that more borrowers are having trouble making their monthly payments.” Although overall U.S. mortgage delinquencies crept up again in July from earlier in 2022, they declined for the 16th straight month year-over-year and remained near historic lows.

The national foreclosure rate has held steady at 0.3% since March, but rose by 0.1-percentage point from July 2021. This slight bump mirrors metro-level trends, with almost two-thirds of areas that CoreLogic tracks posting small annual foreclosure gains. The minor uptick in foreclosures may be due to mortgage forbearance periods and moratoriums ending for some homeowners, while the increase in delinquencies could indicate that inflation is negatively impacting others’ ability to make monthly payments. 

Source: DSNews