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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Freddie Mac: Mortgage Serious Delinquency rate declined in February, Lowest since February 2009

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2014 10:27:00 AM

Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate declined in February to 2.29% from 2.34% in January. Freddie's rate is down from 3.15% in February 2013, and this is the lowest level since February 2009. Freddie's serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20%.

These are mortgage loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure". 

Note: Fannie Mae will report their Single-Family Serious Delinquency rate for February on Monday, March 31st.

Fannie Freddie Seriously Delinquent RateClick on graph for larger image

Although this indicates progress, the "normal" serious delinquency rate is under 1%. 

The serious delinquency rate has fallen 0.86 percentage points over the last year - and at that rate of improvement, the serious delinquency rate will not be below 1% until late 2015. 

Note: Very few seriously delinquent loans cure with the owner making up back payments - most of the reduction in the serious delinquency rate is from foreclosures, short sales, and modifications. 

So even though distressed sales are declining, I expect an above normal level of distressed sales for another 2 years (mostly in judicial foreclosure states).