The mortgage delinquency rate continued to fall in July, decreasing one percentage point compared with June to reach 4.6%, according to CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights Report.
Year over year, the delinquency rate (30 days or more past due) was 0.9% lower compared with July 2016, when it was 5.5%.
As of the end of July, the foreclosure inventory rate, which measures the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process, was 0.7%, down from 0.9% in July to reach the lowest rate since July 2007.
The rate for early-stage delinquencies, defined as 30 to 59 days past due, was 2% in July, down slightly from 2.3% in July 2016.
The share of mortgages that were 60 to 89 days past due was 0.7%, unchanged from July 2016.
The serious delinquency rate (90 days or more past due) was 1.9% in July, down from 2.5% in July 2016.
It was the lowest serious delinquency rate since July 2007.
Alaska was the only state to experience a year-over-year increase in its serious delinquency rate.
“While the U.S. foreclosure rate remains at a 10-year low as of July, the rate across the 100 largest metro areas varies from 0.1 percent in Denver to 2.2 percent in New York,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a statement. “Likewise, the national serious delinquency rate remains at 1.9 percent, unchanged from June, and when analyzed across the 100 largest metros, rates vary from 0.6 percent in Denver to 4.1 percent in New York.”
“Even though delinquency rates are lower in most markets compared with a year ago, there are some worrying trends,” adds Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “For example, markets affected by the decline in oil production or anemic job creation have seen an increase in defaults. We see this in markets such as Anchorage, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana where the serious delinquency rate rose over the last year.”
