For the month of March, 2.6% of all mortgages were in some stage of delinquency, a 0.3 percentage point decrease compared with 2.9% last year and a 0.4 percentage point decrease compared with 3% last month, according to a new report from CoreLogic. This is the lowest level of delinquency in more than two decades.
According to CoreLogic’s monthly Loan Performance Insights Report, in March 2023, the U.S. delinquency and transition rates, and their year-over-year changes, were as follows:
- Early-Stage Delinquencies (30 to 59 days past due): 1.1%, unchanged from last year
- Adverse Delinquency (60 to 89 days past due): 0.3%, unchanged from last year.
- Serious Delinquency (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure): 1.1%, down from 1.5% last year and a high of 4.3% in August 2020.
- Foreclosure Inventory Rate (the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process): 0.3%, unchanged from last year.
- Transition Rate (the share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due): 0.5%, unchanged from last year.
State and metro takeaways:
- No state posted an annual increase in overall delinquency rates in March. The states with the largest declines were Alaska (-0.9 percentage points) and New York (-0.8 percentage points). The other states’ annual delinquency rates dropped between 0.7 and 0.1 percentage points.
- In March, 20 U.S. metro areas posted an increase in overall delinquency rates. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida (+1.3 percentage points) led, followed by Punta Gorda, Florida (+1.1 percentage points) and Bloomsburg-Berwick, Pennsylvania (+0.7 percentage points).
- All but three metro areas posted at least a small annual decrease in serious delinquency rates (defined as 90 days or more late on a mortgage payment) in February.
- The metros that saw serious delinquencies increase were Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida (+1.1 percentage points), Punta Gorda, Florida (+1 percentage point) and Bloomsburg-Berwick, Pennsylvania (+0.1 percentage point).
Major takeaway:
“The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate fell to a historic low in March, reflecting the lowest U.S. unemployment rate in more than 50 years,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist for CoreLogic. “While a slowing economy could cause increases in job losses and mortgage delinquencies, years of home equity gains will provide borrowers who fall behind on their payments with a cushion.”
“This equity should protect many homeowners from foreclosures,” Boesel continued. “There is no current projection that the U.S. foreclosure rate will reach the same level as it did during the housing crisis more than a decade ago.”
For the full report, click here.
