Mortgage Delinquencies Drop Again, Reach Another Historic Low in January, CoreLogic Reports

All U.S. states, metro areas saw mortgage delinquency rates drop year over year

CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report for January 2022.

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Figure 1 (Graphic: Business Wire)

In January, 3.3% of all mortgages in the U.S. were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure), representing a 2.3 percentage point decrease compared to January 2021, when it was 5.6%. This again marks the lowest recorded overall delinquency rate in the U.S. since at least January 1999.

To gain a complete view of the mortgage market and loan performance health, CoreLogic examines all stages of delinquency. In January 2022, 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): 1.2%, down from 1.3% in January 2021.
• Adverse Delinquency (60 to 89 days past due): 0.3%, down from 0.5% in January 2021.
• Serious Delinquency (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure): 1.8%, down from 3.8% in January 2021 and a high of 4.3% in August 2020.
• Foreclosure Inventory Rate (the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process): 0.2%, down from 0.3% in January 2021.
• Transition Rate (the share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due): 0.7%, unchanged from January 2021.

The drop in the nation’s overall mortgage delinquency rate in January marked the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. This trend can be attributed to two familiar factors: escalating home prices and a strong job market. U.S. home prices continue to reach new highs, posting 20% year-over-year growth in February. Meanwhile, the latest U.S. jobs report shows that the country added an average of 562,000 positions per month in the first quarter of 2022.

While the U.S. foreclosure rate declined compared to January 2021, the expiration of moratoriums in some states caused the number of foreclosures to rise from December 2021. Nevertheless, the January 2022 foreclosure rate was flat from December and is still the lowest recorded since at least 1999.

“The large rise in home prices — up 19% in January from one year earlier, according to CoreLogic indexes for the U.S. — has built home equity and is an important factor in the continuing low level of foreclosures,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist of CoreLogic. “Nonetheless, there are many homeowners that have faced financial hardships during the pandemic and are emerging from 18 months of forbearance. The U.S. may experience an uptick in distressed sales this year as some owners struggle to remain current after forbearance and loan modification.”

State and Metro Takeaways:

• In January, all states logged year-over-year declines in their overall delinquency rate. The states with the largest declines were: Nevada (down 3.7 percentage points), Hawaii (down 3.5 percentage points) and New Jersey (down 3.2 percentage points). The remaining states, including the District of Columbia, registered annual delinquency rate drops between 3.1 percentage points and 1.0 percentage points.
• All U.S. metro areas posted at least a small annual decrease in overall delinquency rates, including those that were previously affected in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida last fall. The top four metros with the largest declines were: Odessa, Texas (down 6.3 percentage points); Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii (down 6.1 percentage points); Laredo, Texas (down 5.9 percentage points); and Lake Charles, Louisiana (down 5.8 percentage points).

The next CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report will be released on May 10, 2022, featuring data for February 2022. For ongoing housing trends and data, visit the CoreLogic Intelligence Blog: www.corelogic.com/intelligence.

Methodology

The data in The CoreLogic LPI report represents foreclosure and delinquency activity reported through January 2022. The data in this report accounts for only first liens against a property and does not include secondary liens. The delinquency, transition and foreclosure rates are measured only against homes that have an outstanding mortgage. Homes without mortgage liens are not subject to foreclosure and are, therefore, excluded from the analysis. CoreLogic has approximately 75% coverage of U.S. foreclosure data.

Source: CoreLogic

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About CoreLogic

CoreLogic is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. The company's combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.

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