[1]Nationwide foreclosures are down both monthly and annually, but mortgage loan delinquencies are up month-over-month in August, according to the Black Knight Financial Services [2] Mortgage Monitor released earlier in the week.
In its August 2014 data summary included in the report, Black Knight indicated a nationwide foreclosure inventory rate of 1.80 percent, meaning that 1.80 percent of all residential mortgage loans were in some state of foreclosure in August. This number represented a decline of 2.80 percent from July and 33 percent from August 2013.
Black Knight also reported the number of foreclosure starts in August declined by 10 percent from July and by 24 percent year-over-year. The number of nationwide foreclosure starts has dropped from about 107,000 in August 2013 to about 81,000 in August 2014. A foreclosure start is defined as "any active loan that was not in foreclosure in the prior month that moves into foreclosure inventory in the current month."
The mortgage loan delinquency rate was reported at 5.9 percent for August, according to Black Knight's report, meaning that 5.9 percent of all mortgage loans in the nation were delinquent that month. A delinquent loan is defined as one that 30 or more days late on a payment.
The percentage of delinquent loans has dropped from 6.20 percent in August 2013, but experienced a 4.68 percent increase from July after an up and down year. It was the fifth time in the last 12 months the delinquency rate experienced a month-over-month increase, according to Black Knight.
The nation's serious delinquency rate, which is the percentage of mortgages that are either 90 days late on their payment or in foreclosure, dropped slightly from 4.10 percent in July to 4.05 percent in August. The serious delinquency rate has been declining slowly but surely each month for 11 months after a slight uptick from 5.22 percent in August 2013 to 5.26 percent in August 2014, according to Black Knight.