The overall U.S. mortgage delinquency rate fell to 4.3% in March, down from 4.4% in March 2017, according to CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights report.
The rate for early stage delinquencies – 30 to 59 days past due – was 1.7%, unchanged compared with March 2017.
The share of mortgages that were 60 to 89 days past due was 0.6%, also unchanged compared with March 2017.
The serious delinquency rate – 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure – was 1.9%, down from 2.1% a year earlier.
It was the lowest serious delinquency rate for March since 2007, when it was 1.5%.
Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, says rising home prices and an improving job market are keeping delinquencies at pre-recession lows.
“Unemployment and lack of home equity are two factors that can lead to borrowers defaulting on their mortgages,” Nothaft says in a statement. “Unemployment is at the lowest level in 18 years, and for the first quarter, the CoreLogic Equity Report revealed record levels of home equity growth with equity per owner up $16,300 on average for the year ending March 2018.”
Last fall, hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria – along with the wildfires in California – resulted in extensive property damage which, in turn, drove up the overall delinquency rate in the months that followed.
Although the impact from the storms on the delinquency rate has subsided since then, Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, warns that the same thing could happen again this year.
“As we enter the summer, the risk of hurricane and wildfire damage to homes increases as does the risk of damage-related loan default,” Martell says. “Last year’s hurricanes and wildfires continue to affect today’s default rates. Serious delinquency rates are more than double what they were before last autumn’s hurricanes in Houston, Texas, and Naples, Florida. The serious delinquency rates have also quadrupled in Puerto Rico.”
The foreclosure inventory rate – which measures the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process – also improved further in March, falling 0.6% from 0.8% in March 2017.
Since August 2017, the foreclosure inventory rate has been steady at 0.6%, the lowest level since June 2007, when it was also 0.6%.
The March 2018 foreclosure inventory rate was the lowest for that month in 11 years; it was also 0.6% in March 2007.
