By Kara Johnson, Published: September 24, 2012
Mortgage delinquencies are down by more than 10 percent over the past year, although more than one homeowner in 10 remains at risk of losing their home.
The nation’s mortgage delinquency rate fell to 6.87 percent in August, according to new figures from Lender Processing Services (LPS), to 3.43 million. That represents a 10.6 percent decline over the past year and a 2.3 percent drop from the July figure.
Delinquent mortgages in the LPS survey include loans that are at least 30 days past due but not in foreclosure.
Meanwhile, the national foreclosure rate fell to 4.04 percent, representing 2.02 million homes in foreclosure but not yet repossessed. That number is down 2.0 percent from the August 2011 level and a full 1.0 percent from July’s figures.
Taken together, though, those figures still mean that nearly 11 percent of mortgage-holding U.S. homeowners and either past-due on their mortgages or in the process of foreclosure, a total of 5.45 million homes.
Among past-due mortgages, close to half – 1.52 million – were at least 90 days past due and considered seriously delinquent, the step before foreclosure.
The states with the highest rates of non-current mortgages, including both past due loans and homes in the process of foreclosure, were Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada and New York. The lowest rates were in Montana, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming and North Dakota.
First published at: http://www.mortgageloan.com/fewer-loans-past-due-foreclosure-9249
