by Calculated Risk on 5/20/2022 08:00:00 AM

From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look: Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Yet Another Record Low in April, Driven by Continued Improvement Among Seriously Past-Due Loans

• The national delinquency rate fell to 2.80% in April, down four basis points from March, hitting a new record low for the second consecutive month

• Overall delinquencies are down nearly 40% from last year as the mortgage market continues to recover from pandemic-related impacts

• The number of borrowers who are a single payment past due increased 7.9% month-over-month, following typical seasonal patterns

• This was offset by strong improvement among borrowers who are three or more payments past due – with volumes falling by 8% month-over-month

• Though such serious delinquencies have fallen between 6%-12% in each of the past 14 months, volumes remain more than 55% above pre-pandemic levels

• Despite still-elevated serious delinquency levels, foreclosure starts dropped nearly 12% from March and are holding well below pre-pandemic levels – though active foreclosures edged slightly higher

• Prepayment activity fell by 19.1% from March and 61.8% from a year ago as interest rates continued their sharp ascent in April
emphasis added

According to Black Knight's First Look report, the percent of loans delinquent decreased 1.3% in April compared to March and decreased 40% year-over-year.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process increased 2.3% in April and were up 13.5% over the last year.  (First year-over-year increase in almost 10 years - but from very low levels)

Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 2.80% in April, down from 2.84% in March.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process increased in April to 0.32%, from 0.32% in March.

The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down 1,004,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is up 20,000 properties year-over-year.

Black Knight: Percent Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure Process
	Apr  2022	Mar 2022	Apr 2021	Apr 2020
Delinquent	2.80%	2.84%	4.66%	6.45%
In Foreclosure	0.32%	0.32%	0.29%	0.40%
Number of properties:
Number of properties that are delinquent, but not in foreclosure:	1,496,000	1,513,000	2,500,000	3,400,000
Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory:	173,000	169,000	153,000	211,000
Total Properties	1,669,000	1,682,000	2,653,000	3,611,000