Mortgage delinquencies are on the rise, and our national delinquency rate has just risen for the first time in 9 months, according to the latest report from Black Knight.
The number of properties that are 60 or more days past due or in foreclosure reached over 1 million nationwide, and foreclosure starts have increased 541% from the same time last year.
Nationwide, there are 1.95 million properties with more than 30 days of delinquency.
A contributing factor to this was a 97,000 increase in early-stage delinquencies. This is when a property is either 30-60 days past due or in foreclosure.
The number of homes in serious delinquency — 90 days or more past due — dipped slightly by about 2,000 loans, but remained at the highest level since 2013.
The largest increases in delinquencies were seen in the Northeast U.S., where rates climbed by 5%, and in the Midwest, where rates increased by 4%. In contrast, mortgage delinquencies fell by approximately 14% in the West and by 1% in the South.
The largest month-over-month increase in two years occurred in the Northeast, and it’s largely driven by the hardest-hit states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
For example, in New Jersey, early stage delinquencies rose by 56%, and in New York, the rate was up 42%, compared to last year. Connecticut had a 36% increase in early-stage delinquencies.
Black Knight explained that the increase in early-stage delinquencies was driven primarily by “a sharp uptick” among loans that were current just three months ago — particularly those with an initial six-month payment deferral.
Moe Bedard is the founder and lead mortgage analyst for LoanSafe.org. Since 2007, LoanSafe has helped over 2 million consumers with solutions to their mortgage problems and has been featured in the New York Times, LA Times, Fox Business, and many other media publications.