The mortgage delinquency rate fell slightly to 2.8% in January, down 0.3 percentage points compared with December and flat compared with January 2023, according to CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights Report.
Overall, delinquency rates have been hovering at historic lows for well over a year now. Driving low delinquency rates in this current market is the fact that many homeowners are rate-locked into their current mortgages and thus are unlikely to move from their current homes or fall behind on payments. This, combined with a strong job market, has resulted in the lowest national delinquency rate in decades.
Early-stage delinquencies – 30 to 59 days past due – were at a rate of 1.4%, up from 1.3% in January 2023.
Mortgages 60 to 89 days past due represented 0.5% of all loans, up from 0.4% in January 2023.
Serious delinquencies – 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure – represented 1% of all loans, down from 1.2% in January 2023 and a high of 4.3% in August 2020.
The foreclosure inventory rate – the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process – represented 0.3% of all loans, unchanged from January 2023.
A thriving 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, CoreLogic states in the report.
Still, 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,” says Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic, in the report. “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 continues, “increases in other areas of the country could be a sign that borrowers are experiencing budget strains.”
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 2 percentage points), followed by Jackson, Michigan and New Orleans-Metairie, Lousiana (both up by 0.6 percentage points).
In January, four U.S. metro areas posted an annual increase in serious delinquency rates (defined as 90 days or more late on a mortgage payment), while 32 metros recorded no change.
Declines in other metros ranged from -2 percentage points to -0.1 percentage points. The metros that posted annual serious delinquency increases were Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii (up by 2 percentage points), followed by Albany-Lebanon, Oregon; Carson City, Nevada and Couer d’Alene, Idaho (all up by 0.1 percentage points).
