TheMReport

TH E M R EP O RT | 41 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 The Best and Worst Mortgage-Paying States Mississippi tops the list, claiming the highest number of non current mortgage loans in the nation. A ccording to recent data from Black Knight Financial Ser- vices, prepayments, which normally are a good indicator of refinance activity, jumped 23 percent month-over- month—the highest point so far in 2017. This is likely due to softening interest rates. These levels are still more than 18 percent below where they were this time last year. Delinquencies fell 7.13 percent month-over-month—a reversal of their performance in April, when they rose 13 percent, the largest increase since November 2008. It's typical to see a partial reversal in calendar-driven increases. Loans either seriously delinquent (90 or more days past due) or in active foreclosure both hit 10-year lows in May and are continuing to improve. Only 421,000 loans are in active foreclosure, a decrease of 12,000 since April and 153,000 since 2016. The top five states by non cur - rent percentage were Mississippi at 10.66 percent, Louisiana at 8.68 percent, Alabama at 7.13 percent, West Virginia at 6.83 percent, and Maine at 6.6 percent. In the bottom five states for past-due mortgage payments, Oregon came in at 2.7 percent, Idaho at 2.69 percent, Minnesota at 2.51 percent, North Dakota at 2.26 percent, and Colorado at 2.12 per - cent. Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama kept their same ranking in the top five states by 90-plus days delinquent at 3.1 percent, 2.56 percent, and 2.13 percent respec - tively. Foreclosure starts saw a slight increase in May, with 55,800 loans referred to foreclosure—a 5.7 percent increase over April. This is the second-lowest number of monthly starts since 2005. Early-Stage Mortgage Delinquency Falls to 17-Year Low Delinquencies and foreclosures are dropping to historically low levels in light of tighter underwriting standards. M ortgage delinquency rates were down in the month of March, according to Core- Logic, a global property informa- tion, analytics, and data-enabled so- lutions provider. In their monthly Loan Performance Insights Report, March showed 4.4 percent of mort- gages in some stage of delinquency, meaning 30 or more days past due, including foreclosure. This is an overall 0.8 percentage point decline compared to 2016's March numbers when overall delinquency rates were 5.2 percent. Similar to the delinquency rate, the foreclosure inventory rate, which measures the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process, was 0.8 percent compared to March 2016, when it was 1 percent. Down from March 2016's 2.7 percent, mortgages 90 days or more past due, known as those in serious delinquency, fell to 2.1 percent, the lowest level since November 2007. "Dropping delinquency and foreclosure rates reflect the beneficial impact of stringent post-crisis underwriting standards as well as better fundamentals such as higher employment, household forma - tion and home price gains," said Frank Martell, President and CEO of CoreLogic. "Looking ahead, we expect these positive trends to con- tinue as the industry shifts its focus toward solving supply shortages and looming affordability crises in an increasing number of markets." On the opposite end of the spectrum, early-stage delinquen - cies, or 30-59 days past due, fell to 1.7 percent in March 2017, down from March 2016's 1.9 percent. According to CoreLogic Chief Economist Dr. Frank Nothaft, this is the lowest rate for early- stage mortgages of any month since January 2000. Mortgages that were 60-89 days past due in March 2017 hit 0.59 percent, a hair down from 0.63 percent in March 2016. CoreLogic analyzes transition rates due to the volatile nature of early-stage delinquencies. They found that the share of transi - tioned mortgages from current to 30-days past due was 0.6 percent in March 2017, only a 0.1 percent decline from March 2016—again, the lowest for any month since January 2000. For comparison, in January 2007 before the financial crisis, the current-to-30-day transi - tion rate was 1.2 percent, peaking in November 2008 at 2 percent. "We expect these positive trends to continue as the industry shifts its focus toward solving supply shortages and looming affordability crises in an increasing number of markets." —Frank Martell, President and CEO, CoreLogic

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