The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate fell again in August to reach 3.52% of all loans, down 2.43% compared with July and down 10.39% compared with August 2017, according to Black Knight’s First Look report.
The drop means mortgage delinquencies are now down 5.7% over the past two months.
It was the strongest such decline during July-August on record, since before 2000.
About 1.8 million properties with mortgages were 30 days or more past due (but not in foreclosure) in August, a decrease of about 43,000 compared with July and a decrease of about 185,000 compared with August 2017.
Of those, about 510,000 were 90 days or more past due (but not in foreclosure), a decrease of about 18,000 compared with the previous month and a decrease of about 47,000 compared with a year earlier.
Helping to drive the decrease was a drop in delinquencies related to the hurricanes that struck Texas and Florida last fall. Only about 25,100 of the properties impacted by those storms were delinquent as of last month.
There were about 48,000 foreclosure starts in August, down 0.62% compared with the previous month and down 12.25% compared with a year earlier.
There could be a slight increase in delinquencies coming as a result of the flooding caused by Hurricane Florence.
According to Black Knight’s data, about 391,000 residential properties with mortgages are located in Hurricane Florence’s evacuation area. Of those, an estimated 283,000 are located in the 18 North Carolina counties declared disaster areas so far by FEMA.
The total pre-foreclosure inventory rate in August was 0.54%, down 4.41% compared with July and down 28.17% compared with August 2017, according to the report.
As of the end of the month there were about 280,000 homes in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory, down about 13,000 month-over-month and down about 105,000 year-over-year.
The monthly prepayment rate was 0.92%, up 1.92% compared with the previous month but down 18.66% compared with a year earlier.
