Black Knight First Look: Mortgage Delinquencies Fall to Lowest Level on Record

Black Knight, Jacksonville, issued its First Look Mortgage Monitor, reporting mortgage delinquencies fell by more than 5% in January, hitting their lowest level on record dating back to 2000.

The report said January’s 14% year-over-year decline was the strongest in more than 12 months, with the rate of improvement picking up noticeably in recent months.

Black Knight reported fewer than 2 million homeowners past due on their mortgages or in active foreclosure, the fewest since March 2005. Despite the decline in delinquencies, foreclosure starts edged upward in January, but remain nearly 15% below last year’s levels.

The report said the number of loans in active foreclosure remained relatively flat for the month (+1,000 properties in foreclosure), and down 19,000 from the same time last year, leaving the national foreclosure rate unchanged

Though falling by 15% in January, prepayment activity remains 113% above last year’s levels.

Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported mortgage delinquency rates for loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties in the fourth quarter fell to the lowest level since it began tracking such data.

The MBA National Delinquency Survey reported the delinquency rate for one-to-four unit residential properties in the fourth quarter fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.77 percent of all loans outstanding, down by 20 basis points from the third quarter and by 29 basis points from one year ago. The percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started in the fourth quarter remained unchanged at 0.21 percent.

Other Black Knight January report data:

–Total loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 3.22 percent, down by 5.37 percent from December and down by 14.2 percent from a year ago.

–Total foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 0.46 percent, up by 0.41 percent from December but down by 9.24 percent from a year ago.

–Foreclosure starts: 42,800, up by 8.35 percent from December but down by nearly 15 percent from a year ago.

–Monthly prepayment rate: 1.26 percent, down by 15.33 percent from December but up by nearly 113 percent from a year ago.

–Properties 30 or more days past due but not in foreclosure: 1.705 million, down by 98,000 from December and down by 240,000 from a year ago.

–Properties 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 419,000, down by 8,000 from December and down by 85,000 from a year ago.

–Properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory: 246,000, up by 1,000 from December but down by 19,000 from a year ago.

–Properties 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure: 1.951 million, down by 96,000 from December and by 259,000 from a year ago.

–States with the highest percentage of non-current loans: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Arkansas.

States with the lowest percentage of non-current loans: California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado.

States with the highest percentage of 90-day plus delinquencies: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana.