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46 | M R EP O RT SERVICING THE LATEST O R I G I NAT I O N S E R V I C I N G DATA G O V E R N M E N T S E C O N DA R Y M A R K E T Are Homeowners Staying Current? A new report says delinquencies fell by more than 5% month-over-month in January. M ortgage delinquen- cies fell to a new record low, and just 2 million homeown- ers are either past due on their mortgage loans or in some stage of foreclosure, according to the latest data from Black Knight. Black Knight released its record-breaking delinquency score in its First Look at January 2020 Mortgage Data, a precursor to its monthly Mortgage Monitor. Black Knight has been analyzing data since 2000. In that time, the na- tional delinquency rate has never fallen as low as it did this January when it sunk to 3.22%. Delinquencies fell more than 5% month-to-month in January and are down 14.17% over the year. While loan delinquencies are on a downward trend, foreclosure starts rose in January by 8.35%. However, they are 14.74% down on an annual basis. The foreclosure rate charted a barely perceptible increase of just 0.41% over the month of January as 1,000 properties slipped into foreclosure. The national fore- closure rate now stands at 0.46% of all mortgage loans outstand- ing. Despite the slight increase in January, the rate is down 9.24% from a year ago. The prepayment rate moved in the opposite direction, falling 15.33% over the month but up 112.97% over the year. The states with the highest percentage of noncurrent mortgage loans, including those that are de- linquent as well as those in some stage of foreclosure, are Mississippi with a rate of 9.84%, Louisiana with 7.20%, Alabama with 6.26%, West Virginia with 6.10%, and Arkansas with 5.79%. Despite ranking highest in the nation for the percentage of noncurrent loans, these states all experienced a decline in noncur- rent loans over the year. Colorado had the lowest rate of noncurrent loans with just 1.63% of loans past-due or in foreclo- sure. The state was followed by Washington (1.67%), Oregon (1.77%), Idaho (1.79%), and California (1.90%). Just as with the top-ranking states for noncurrent loans, all five of these states experienced declining rates of noncurrent loans over the past year. For all of these states, the change in the noncur- rent loan rate was in the double- digits. The states with the highest percentage of severely delinquent loans—those 90 or more days past due—are Mississippi (3%), Louisiana (1.74%), Alabama (1.73%), Arkansas (1.61%), and Indiana (1.20%).