Black Knight ‘First Look:’ Strong Close to 2019 Pushes Mortgage Delinquency Rate to Near-Record Low

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., said mortgage delinquencies fell by nearly 4% month-over-month to within 0.04% of the record low set this past May and more than 12% below from a year ago.

The company’s monthly First Look Mortgage Monitor also reported the national foreclosure rate fell again in December to a 14-year low and the lowest on record outside the final five months of 2005

The report said 2019 ended with slightly more than two million borrowers past due on their mortgage (including active foreclosures)–down 236,000 from the same time last year and the lowest year-end volume since the turn of the century

Black Knight said after falling by 19% in November, prepayment rates ticked upward in December, suggesting that the recent leveling off of interest rates has had a flattening effect on refinance activity

Key report findings:

–U.S. loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 3.40 percent in December, down by 3.75 percent from November and down by 12.43 percent from a year ago.

Total foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 0.46 percent, down by 1.57 percent from November and down by 11.59 percent from a year ago.

–Total foreclosure starts: 39,500, up by nearly 18 percent from November but down by 14.69 percent from a year ago.

–Monthly prepayment rate: 1.48 percent, up by 1.43 percent from November and up by 125.99 percent from a year ago.

–Properties 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 1.803 million, down by 65,000 from November and down by 210,000 from a year ago.

–Properties 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 427,000, down by 12,000 from November and down by 84,000 from a year ago.

–Properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory: 245,000, down by 3,000 from November and down by 26,000 from a year ago.

Properties 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure: 2.047 million, down by 69,000 from November and down by 236,000 from a year ago.

–States with the highest percentage of non-current loans: Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas (no change from November).

–States with the lowest percentage of non-current loans: California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado (no change from November).

–States with the highest percentage of 60 days-plus delinquencies: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia (Tennessee drops out of bottom five).