Tag Archives: Seriously Delinquent Mortgages

Foreclosure inventory, which is the number of homes in some state of foreclosure, totaled 553,000 in February (about 1.4 percent of all residential mortgages nationwide), the lowest total since March 2008 and a year-over-year decline of 27.3 percent from February 2014, when there were 761,000 homes in some state of foreclosure (1.9 percent of all residential mortgages).

The issue has been particularly hot in judicial foreclosure states such as Florida and New Jersey, where the foreclosure process must pass through the courts and signed by a judge to be completed.

While foreclosure numbers have declined significantly since the peak years of 2010 and 2011, a recent uptick in foreclosure starts demonstrates the need still exists for loss mitigation programs such as the NFMC to help families and individuals stay in their homes when their mortgages become delinquent. The current demand for NFMC grant funds ($87 million) was nearly double the amount of $44.8 million that was awarded.

Completed foreclosures have totaled approximately 5.5 million nationwide since the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 and have totaled approximately 7 million since homeownership peaked in the second quarter of 2004. January's foreclosure rate of 1.4 percent, meaning 1.4 percent of all residential homes with a mortgage nationwide are in some state of foreclosure, was the lowest level reported since March 2008. Year-over-year, the foreclosure rate was down 0.6 percentage points, from 2.0 percent reported in January 2014.

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio contracted to start 2015 after ending 2014 with its highest annualized growth rate for a single month in five years while the serious delinquency rate for the Enterprise's loans fell to a six-year low, according to Freddie Mac's January 2015 Monthly Volume Summary released Thursday.

Foreclosures in the United States have been steadily declining for months nearly every way the numbers are broken down, and December was no exception, according to CoreLogic's December 2014 National Foreclosure Report released Tuesday. Foreclosure inventory nationwide dropped in December down to 552,000 from 840,000 in December 2013, a decline of 34.3 percent. As of the end of December 2014, approximately 1.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage were in some state of foreclosure – a decline from 2.1 percent from the previous December. The current foreclosure rate of 1.4 percent is the lowest level since March 2008.

While foreclosure activity in Florida has been generally declining for the last year, the Sunshine State has still not completely recovered from being one of the states hit hardest by the financial crisis and foreclosure wave, which peaked in 2010.

About 1.5 percent of all homes with a mortgage in the United States were in some state of foreclosure in November 2014, the lowest foreclosure rate since March 2008, according to CoreLogic's November 2014 National Foreclosure Report. Foreclosure inventory, which includes homes in any state of foreclosure, plummeted year-over-year in November, falling from 880,000 in November 2013 to 567,000 in November 2014 – a decline of 35.5 percent. November represented the 37th consecutive month in which foreclosure inventory declined year-over-year and the 26th straight month in which the nation's foreclosure inventory saw a double-digit percentage decline.

In September, foreclosure inventory in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in more than six years while delinquencies also significantly declined, according to Black Knight Financial Services' "First Look" at September Mortgage Data released on Friday.

Foreclosure inventory was down in the Tampa, Florida, area in August but the area still led all core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) nationwide in foreclosure completions over a 12-month period, according to data recently released by CoreLogic.