ICE: Foreclosure Starts Jump in January

(Image courtesy of David Brown/pexels.com)

Intercontinental Exchange Inc., released its “first look” at January mortgage performance, finding that foreclosure starts jumped by 30% and foreclosure sales rose by 25%.

That surge was driven by an expiration in the VA foreclosure moratorium.

However, delinquencies fell by 24 basis points to 3.47%, 10 basis points higher year-over-year, but still 33 basis points below pre-pandemic levels.

Cascading natural disasters have affected the number of borrowers past due–while the number of borrowers reported as such from last year’s hurricanes fell from 58,000 to 41,000, numbers from the recent Los Angeles wildfires are still emerging. ICE estimated 680 homeowners in the path of those fires missed their payment for January, and the most recent data suggests as many as 3,300 borrowers may be at risk of missing their February payment.

Preypayment activity fell to 0.48% in January, its lowest level in nearly a year.

The top five states by noncurrent percentage are Louisiana, at 8.37%, Mississippi, at 8.05%, Alabama, at 5.86%, Indiana, at 5.43%, and Arkansas at 5.33%.

The bottom five states by noncurrent percentage are Washington, at 1.99%, Idaho, at 2%, Montana, at 2.06%, Colorado, at 2.09%, and Oregon, at 2.18%.