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Black Knightrnsaid the spike in complaints seen in Q1 2014 (which, from the chart regardingrnmortgage related complaints above could as easily be viewed as an atypicalrndecline in the four quarter of 2013) was broad-based and spread across allrnsizes of servicers.  It could potentiallyrnindicate more of a result of CFPB’s media efforts than discrete servicer action.</p

The Monitor also looked at negative equity, finding that over the last year the number of underwater borrower has decreased by 1.6 million.  Twenty-nine percent of underwater borrowers are seriously delinquent on their mortgages and borrowers in negative equity positions make up 77 percent of all active foreclosures.  In fact, the company said, one of every three borrowers in active foreclosure has a current loan-to-value ratio of 150 or more, meaning they owe 50 percent more than their homes are worth.  72 percent of those 90 or more days past due are also underwater</p

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Black Knight tracks its home valuernestimates separately, using one home price estimate for all mortgages andrnanother which excludes distressed properties. rnIts senior vice president of Data and Analytics, Ben Graboske said therncompany has the benefit of knowing current unpaid balances on millions of firstrnlien mortgages every month and is also able to separately and distinctly valuerndistressed and non-distressed properties down to the ZIP code level.  This allows them to determine equityrnpositions, especially in heavily distressed communities.   The trend, Graboske said, is one of overall improvementrnthough negative equity distribution varies considerably depending upon geographicalrnlocation and home values within a given market. </p

“We drilled down to take a closer lookrnat how this was playing out geographically and among different property pricerntiers. Nevada and Florida continue to see the nation’s highest negative equityrnrates, with 16.4 and 15.1 percent of borrowers being underwater in thosernstates, respectively.”  He continued,  “In terms of price tiers, we found that thernbottom 20 percent of homes by price continue to struggle with negative equity,rnwhile negative equity rates on high-end homes – the top 20 percent by price -rnare limited, even in the hardest hit states. In fact, when reviewing at thernstate level, borrowers in the bottom 20 percent of homes by price are ninerntimes more likely to be underwater on their mortgages than those in the top 20rnpercent.”</p

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The Monitor also said that the drop in thernmortgage delinquency rate in March was the largest monthly decline in nine years</b- 12.2 percent – and declines were seen across all stages of delinquencies withrnthe 30-day bucket hitting the lowest level in over 10 years.  For every 10,000 loans that were current atrnthe end of February, only 73 borrowers missed a payment in March, marking thernlowest current-to-30 roll rate in over 15 years. Roll rates from 30-to-60 andrn60-to-90 days delinquent hit their lowest levels since March 2006. Finally, thernrate of loans curing from 30-days delinquent to current status was 40.7rnpercent, the highest level since March 2005 and slightly above the 2000-2005rnaverage of 40.4 percent.