COLLUSIONZ - charged conservatism

Why are so many people following Obama and his march towards Socialism? Examine the American News, Entertainment and Academic industries. These industries have been saturated by the progressive liberal left. They have successfully more

Mortgage Delinquencies Reach 12% in U.S.

By JAMES R. HAGERTY
Rising unemployment is leading to more mortgage defaults, a new survey shows.

About 12% of first-lien home mortgages in the U.S. were overdue or in the foreclosure process at the end of March, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Thursday. That is up from 8.1% a year earlier.

The trade group’s quarterly survey covers mortgages on one- to four-family residences.

At the end of the latest quarter, 8.2% of the loans were at least 30 days overdue, and 3.9% were in the foreclosure process.

Developments Blog
Unemployment fuels defaults, not mortgage payments Home price declines spread to stable markets Do loan modifications work? What started in 2006 as mainly a problem among subprime loans—those for people with weaker credit records—continues to spread to more prime borrowers. People who lose their jobs and find that they owe far more than the current value of their homes are more likely to give up on making payments.

“The economy is driving it,” said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist at the trade group. He said mortgage performance appears unlikely to recover before late next year or early 2011.

About 5.7% of prime fixed-rate loans were overdue or in foreclosure, up from 3.2% a year earlier. Among subprime adjustable-rate loans, the figure jumped to 49% from 37%. For loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, it rose to 15% from 14%.

California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona account for 25% of U.S. home mortgages outstanding but 46% of the foreclosures started in this year’s first quarter. Florida is the worst-hit state, with 10.6% of all first-lien home loans in foreclosure, followed by Nevada (7.8%), Arizona (5.6%) and California (5.2%).

The states with the lowest rates are North Dakota and Wyoming, both 0.9%. The rate is 1.7% in Texas and 3% in New York state.

Write to James R. Hagerty at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Back to the main page.