by Calculated Risk on 2/25/2019 09:19:00 AM

From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look: January’s Prepayment Rate Lowest in More Than 18 Years as Seasonal Home Sale Reductions Outweigh Rise in Refinance Incentive

• The national delinquency rate fell by 3.5 percent and is now nearly 13 percent below last year’s level

• Foreclosure starts rose seasonally month-over-month but were down more than 19 percent year-over-year

• The number of loans in active foreclosure continued its downward trend; there are now 265,000 active foreclosures, down 72,000 from one year ago
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• Despite recent declines in interest rates, January’s prepayment rate was the lowest since November 2000

• Seasonal reductions in home sales outweighed any early, rate-driven rise in refinance incentive

According to Black Knight's First Look report for January, the percent of loans delinquent decreased 3.45% in January compared to December, and decreased 12.9% year-over-year.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased 2.2% in January and were down 22.4% over the last year.

Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 3.75% in January, down from 3.88% in December.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased slightly in January to 0.51% from 0.52% in December.

The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down 257,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is down 72,000 properties year-over-year.

Black Knight: Percent Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure Process
	Jan 2019	Dec 2018	Jan 2018	Jan 2017
Delinquent	3.75%	3.88%	4.31%	4.25%
In Foreclosure	0.51%	0.52%	0.66%	0.94%
Number of properties:
Number of properties that are delinquent, but not in foreclosure:	1,945,000	2,013,000	2,202,000	2,162,000
Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory:	265,000	271,000	337,000	481,000
Total Properties	2,210,000	2,283,000	2,539,000	2,643,000