Foreclosure Rate Held Steady YOY in December

  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Foreclosure Rate Held Steady YOY in December
Foreclosure Rate Held Steady YOY in December

Irvine, CA, March 13, 2018-- CoreLogic has released its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report which shows that, nationally, 5.3% of mortgages were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure) in December 2017.

This represents no change in the overall delinquency rate compared with December 2016 when it was also 5.3%.

As of December 2017, the foreclosure inventory rate, which measures the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process, was 0.6%, down 0.2 percentage points from 0.8% in December 2016. Since August 2017, the foreclosure inventory rate has been steady at 0.6%, the lowest level since June 2007, when it was also 0.6%. This past December’s foreclosure inventory rate was the lowest for the month of December in 11 years; it was also 0.6% in December 2006.

The rate for early-stage delinquencies-defined as 30 to 59 days past due-was 2.3% in December 2017, up 0.1 percentage points from 2.2% in both November 2017 and December 2016. The share of mortgages that were 60 to 89 days past due in December 2017 was 0.8%, down from 0.9% in November 2017 and up from 0.7% in December 2016. The serious delinquency rate-defined as 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure-was 2.1% in December 2017, up from 2% in November 2016 and down from 2.3% in December 2016. The December 2017 serious delinquency rate was the lowest for the month of December since December 2006, when it was 1.5%.

“The wildfires in Sonoma and Napa counties began October 8 and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes. Two- and three-month delinquency rates have spiked in these two counties, more than doubling between October and December,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “The after effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria continue to appear as well. Serious delinquency rates in the Houston and Miami metropolitan areas doubled between September and year-end and quadrupled in the San Juan area of Puerto Rico.”

Since early-stage delinquencies can be volatile, CoreLogic also analyzes transition rates. The share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due was 1.1% in December 2017, up from 1% in both November 2017 and December 2016. This was the highest rate for a December, as it was 1.2% in December 2013. By comparison, in January 2007, just before the start of the financial crisis, the current- to 30-day transition rate was 1.2%, while it peaked in November 2008 at 2%.

“The effect of the wildfires and hurricanes on delinquency transition rates was all too clear in our latest analysis,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “In Sonoma and Napa counties, both 30-to-60 day and 60-to-90 day delinquent transition rates in December were more than double what they had averaged the prior year. Likewise, neighborhoods affected by hurricanes have seen a jump in transition rates in the months immediately following. These natural disasters have stalled or reversed the decline in 30-to-119 day delinquency rates that we had seen previously.”