Mortgage loan performance continued to hold strong in April, with just 2.8% of all mortgages in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure), according to CoreLogic.
That’s a decrease of 0.1% compared with March but an increase of 0.2% compared with April 2022.
Early-stage delinquencies (30 to 59 days past due) represented 1.4% of all loans, up from 1.2% a year earlier.
Loans 60 to 89 days past due represented 0.4%, up from 0.3% in April 2022.
Serious delinquencies (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure), represented 1.1% of all loans, down from 1.4% in April 2022 and a high of 4.3% in August 2020.
The foreclosure inventory rate (the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process) was 0.3%, unchanged from April 2022.
“Although almost a dozen states and more than 150 metro areas posted year-over-year increases in overall mortgage delinquency rates in April, U.S. loan performance remains resilient, with delinquencies and foreclosures continuing to hover near record lows,” CoreLogic states in its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report. “The national overall delinquency rate increased slightly from March to April, but this is a typical seasonal pattern, as tax bills can stretch homeowners’ budgets in the short term and result in late mortgage payments for some borrowers.”
Eleven states posted an annual increase in overall delinquency rates in April. States with the largest increases included Idaho, Indiana, Michigan and Utah.
“Mortgage performance remained strong in April, with overall delinquencies at minimal levels and serious delinquencies at a 23-year low,” says Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic, in the report. “However, there is concern that mortgages originated in a rising-interest-rate environment may have higher instances of delinquencies, as borrowers become stretched financially. While early delinquencies for 2022 mortgage originations are about the same rate as those in other rising interest-rate environments, loans with low down payments are exhibiting comparably higher-than-usual early delinquencies.”
