CoreLogic: US Mortgage Delinquency Rate Hovers Near Record Low in February

The share of borrowers who are late on their mortgage payments has dropped on an annual basis for almost two years

CoreLogic®, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report for February 2023.

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Figure 1: National Overview of Loan Performance (Graphic: Business Wire)

For the month of February, 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 0.4 percentage point decrease compared with 3.4% in February 2022 and a 0.2 percentage point increase compared with January 2023.

To gain a complete view of the mortgage market and loan performance health, CoreLogic examines all stages of delinquency. In February 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): 1.4%, unchanged from February 2022 and up from 1.3% in January 2023.
• Adverse Delinquency (60 to 89 days past due): 0.4%, unchanged from February 2022.
• Serious Delinquency (90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure): 1.2%, down from 1.7% in February 2022 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%, up from 0.2% in February 2022.
• Transition Rate (the share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due): 0.7%, down from 0.8% in February 2022.

The national mortgage delinquency rate has barely changed year over year since the spring of 2022, indicating a fairly stable economy in which most borrowers are able to pay their mortgages on time. Similarly, the U.S. foreclosure rate has held steady at 0.3% for a year. And while the unemployment rate remained near a pre-pandemic low in March, it is possible that mortgage delinquency rates could begin to creep up later this year, as the impact of recent job losses begin to affect the numbers several months later.

“Despite a small monthly increase in the share of mortgage payments that were one month late in February, early-stage delinquencies remained unchanged year over year,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “February’s early-stage delinquency rate was historically low and primarily driven by a strong job market. However, the possibility of a recession that would raise the U.S. unemployment rate could slightly erode the current strong mortgage performance situation in the coming months.”

State and Metro Takeaways:

• No state posted an annual increase in overall delinquency rates in February. The states with the largest declines were New York and West Virginia (both down by 0.9 percentage points). The other states' annual delinquency rates dropped between 0.8 and 0.1 percentage points.
• In February, 18 U.S. metro areas posted an increase in overall delinquency rates. The top two areas for mortgage delinquency gains year over year were Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida and Punta Gorda, Florida (both up by 1.7 percentage points).
• All but four U.S. 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; and Punta, Gorda Florida (both up by 1.3 percentage points). North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida; and Bloomsburg-Berwick, Pennsylvania followed (both up by 0.1 percentage point).

The next CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report will be released on May 25, 2023, featuring data for March 2023. 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 February 2023. 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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