13.16% of Mortgages Delinquent: MBA

Single-family mortgages set a new record delinquency rate of 13.16% in Q209, according to the quarterly survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The delinquency rate includes mortgages at least one payment past due or in foreclosure. The results were lead by Florida with 12% of mortgages somewhere in foreclosure, another 5% at least 90 days past due and a total 22.8% delinquent at least one payment delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of June. Nevada followed Florida with 21.3% at least one payment past due or in foreclosure. The MBA also saw a jump in foreclosures on Federal Housing Agency-ensured mortgages. The percentage of loans with foreclosures started, the percentage in foreclosure and the percentage seriously delinquent at 90 plus days past due all set records for FHA loans in the quarter. “While the foreclosure starts rate for FHA loans at 1.15% is lower than all other loan types with the exception of prime fixed-rate loans, the FHA percentages have remained low due to a large increase in the number of loans outstanding, the so-called ‘denominator effect,’” said Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist, in a statement. “If the number of FHA loans had stayed the same as a year ago and we saw the same number of foreclosures, the FHA foreclosure rate would be almost 1.5%.” Delinquency and foreclosure rates are unlikely to improve until unemployment rates ease, MBA said, despite the administration’s mortgage workout initiatives. “[W]hile the various loan modification programs continue to have an impact on holding foreclosure rates below where they otherwise would be, the issue is that many of the foreclosures involve homes that are vacant, borrowers who no longer have jobs, or loans where there was fraud involved,” Brinkmann said. “Therefore, in measuring the effectiveness of industry or government loan modification programs it is necessary to compare the results not with the total foreclosure and delinquency numbers reported here but with the smaller subset of borrowers who can and want to qualify.” Write to Diana Golobay.