Measures of Housing Distress at 7+ Year Lows

Black Knight Financial Services saidrntoday that the mortgage delinquency rate in March was the lowest in the U.S.rnsince October 2007 and the foreclosure rate was the lowest since Octoberrn2008.  September 2008 is the date mostrncommonly used to mark the beginning of the foreclosure crisis.  Foreclosure starts in March also hit a 7.5rnyear low.rn</p

In its monthly “First Look” report therncompany said that the rate of loans that were 30 or more days past due in Marchrnbut not in foreclosure was 5.52 percent or 2.77 million housing units.  This was a -7.57 percent change (-221,000rnunits) from February and 16.29 percent lower than in March 2013 when totalrndelinquencies were approximately 3.31 million. rn</p

Of those delinquent mortgages 1.2rnmillion were more than 90 days past due but not yet in foreclosure.  That was a decline of 43,000 loansrnmonth-over-month and 267,000 on an annual basis.</p

Loans in foreclosure, often called thernforeclosure inventory, numbered 1,070,000 in March, down 45,000 from Februaryrnand 619,000 compared to March 2013.  Thernforeclosure inventory represented 2.13 percent of mortgaged homes in the U.S.,rna decline of 4.23 percent for the month and 36.69 percent from the year before.rn  </p

Black Knight says the total of loansrnpast due or in foreclosure has slipped below 4 million units for the first timernsince November 2007 with a total of 3.84 million homes in those combinedrncategories.  This is a month-over-monthrnchange of -266,000 and a decline year-over-year of 1,156,000.</p

The states with the highest rates ofrnnon-current loans in March were Mississippi (13.39 percent), New Jersey (12.93rnpercent), Florida (12.10 percent), New York (11.09 percent), and Maine (10.58rnpercent).</p

Several states have shown substantialrnimprovement in their non-current loan percentages over the last sixrnmonths.  States with declines in thosernpercentages ranging from 19.22 to 21.42 percent over that period werernCalifornia, Arizona, Illinois, Florida, and Nevada.  At the same time there were five states inrnwhich the non-current rate deteriorated by approximately 10 percent, Oklahoma,rnNew York, New Mexico, Alabama, and Louisiana.</p

There were 88,100 foreclosure startsrnnationally in March compared to 91,993 in February.  This was a 4.24 percent decrease and startsrnwere down 27.19 percent from one year earlier. rnForeclosure sales as a percentage of seriously delinquent loans tickedrnup 9.15 percent to a rate of 1.83 percent, a rate 6.37 percent below that ofrnMarch 2013.<br /<br /Black Knight said that loan prepayment rates, while still down nearly 60rnpercent from levels in March 2013, rose in March by 20.84 percent to 0.80rnpercent. </p

The company will provide a more in-depthrnreview of this data in its monthly Mortgage Monitor report, scheduled forrnrelease in early May

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