According to Lender Processing Services (LPS), the national mortgage delinquency rate took a 12 percent plunge to 7.78 percent at the end of March of this year[1]. This value is 20 percent lower than a year ago, and includes all loans that are 30 days or more past due but not yet in foreclosure. Interestingly, foreclosure rates edged up again, reaching 4.21 percent. That is about 1.4 percent higher than the previous month, but not altogether surprising since many lenders had dramatically slowed or stalled their foreclosure processes in wake of last fall’s robo-signer disaster but are now slowly resuming operating.
Florida currently posts the highest number of delinquent loans, and Nevada, Mississippi, New Jersey and Georgia are close behind[2]. The delinquency rates nationwide have steadily – albeit not particularly swiftly – decreased since the beginning of 2011, and many analysts hope that this number, unlike foreclosure numbers that may be subject to external factors like bank trepidation of the process, indicates the beginning of a slow recovery for homeowners and possibly puts the end of the housing slide in sight.
Numbers in the housing market are very easy to manipulate. Do you think that a decline in mortgage delinquencies could mean better days are ahead in the market’s future?
Thank you for reading REJournalOnline!
Your comments and questions are welcomed below.
[1] http://www.dsnews.com/articles/lps-records-12-drop-in-mortgage-delinquencies-2011-04-19
[2] http://www.housingwire.com/2011/04/19/national-delinquency-rate-drops-again-in-march-lps
Better days FAR ahead sure.
There is no rapid changes coming anytime soon unless we decide to jump out in front of this thing instead chasing it like a dog chasing a turtle. Running circles around it, nipping at, all the while having no idea where it’s leading us.
Imagine if we could get out in front and do something to lead the market right where we want it to go. I think everyone would agree that would be to end defaults and foreclosures, shrink inventories and strengthen demand, and get values moving in a positive upward direction right. Oh, but how? What sort of miracle would it take?
We would first have to look at the number of foreclosures, not released from the Bank’s, to get an accurate figure.
They are creating the nightmare by depreciating everyone’s equity by selling bulk, now bank owned properties, and short sales at deeply discounted properties. Then you have dropped a large population of resident properties and they walk.
Most of the Pay Option Arms sold by {Washington Mutual and many many others} were knowingly bogus and that fact was known by the government. A thought might be to bring the home’s to fair market value and see what loan program and interest rate would work and go on with life.
The Pay Option Arm loan programs are just starting to reset to a higher interest rate and payment, from the teaser rate of 1% and a flood
of foreclosures are primed to hit the banks books. These are primarily all high dollar properties, which will set off a huge dollar cycle of foreclosures to add to the bank’s books and present non existing help programs.
Add to these, that most of our government official’s were paid off on these and choose not to have the banks disclose their identity.
Could or could not be facts, you decide. It is just my opinion.