Black Knight: Mortgage Performance Already Taking Hit from Harvey

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., said while August mortgage delinquencies remained flat nationally, they spiked by nearly 16 percent in Hurricane Harvey-related FEMA-designated disaster areas.

The company’s First Look Mortgage Monitor report said despite not making landfall until the end of August, Harvey’s impact on mortgage delinquencies is already being felt–and will only get worse in September. Black Knight already attributed 6,700 new 30-day delinquencies to Harvey. An additional 1,000 borrowers who were already 30-days past due missed another mortgage payment in August as a result of the storm.

“Based on observations from previous hurricanes, the heaviest impact won’t come until September,” Black Knight said. “This is also despite the fact that most payments are due on the 1st–though in reality, a not insignificant portion of borrowers make their payments late in the month.”

Black Knight reported the national delinquency rate ticked up just slightly (0.72%) from July, and now stands at 3.93% of all active mortgages. Later stage delinquencies also rose slightly (+2,000 new 90-day delinquent), but remained down by 112,000 from a year ago.

The report also said loans in active foreclosure continued to fall, with another 13,000 reduction in August. Total foreclosure inventory now stands at 385,000, just 0.76% of active mortgages. Foreclosure starts rose to 54,700, up by 2.63% from a month ago.

Black Knight said states with the highest percentage of non-current loans were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia and Maine. States with the lowest percentage of non-current loans were Colorado, North Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon and Montana.