Mortgage Delinquencies Reach 5-Year Low as Housing Heals
By Prashant Gopal - Nov 7, 2013
The share of U.S. mortgages that are seriously delinquent fell to a five-year low as job gains help borrowers keep up on payments while rising home prices enable others to sell.
The percentage of home loans that were more than 90 days behind or in the foreclosure process fell to 5.65 percent in the third quarter from 7.03 percent a year earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report today. That was the lowest rate since the third quarter of 2008, when it was 5.17 percent.
Fewer Americans are falling behind on their payments as the economy stabilizes and property values rise across the country. The jobless rate in September fell to 7.2 percent, the lowest since November 2008. The median U.S. home price rose 12.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday. Cities hurt worst by the foreclosure crisis, such as Las Vegas, Atlanta and Sacramento, California, had the biggest increases.
“The speed of the decline in the foreclosure rate is faster than I anticipated,” Michael Fratantoni, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s vice president for research and economics, said in a telephone interview today from Washington. “The strength of the housing recovery is benefiting the distressed portion of the market, clearing it up more quickly.”
The serious-delinquency rate is a gauge of shadow inventory, or homes likely to end up on the market after seizure by banks. The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the third quarter was 3.08 percent, the lowest since 2008 and down from 4.07 percent a year earlier.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-07/mortgage-delinquencies-reach-5-year-low-as-housing-heals.html