Percentage of Troubled Mortgages Falls in 1Q

Washington, DC, May 19, 2010--The percentage of loans in foreclosure or with at least one payment past due fell in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The percentage was a non-seasonally-adjusted 14.01%, down from 15.02% in the fourth quarter of 2009.

But the seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for mortgages on one- to four-unit residential properties, which includes mortgages at least one payment past due but doesn't include those in foreclosure, rose to 10.06%, from 9.47%.

Mortgages in the foreclosure process hit a record high at a non-seasonally-adjusted 4.63%, up from 4.58% in the fourth quarter.

"The issue this quarter is that the seasonally adjusted delinquency rates went up while unadjusted rates went down," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist, in a news release.

"Delinquency rates traditionally peak in the fourth quarter and fall in the first quarter and we saw that first quarter drop in the data. The question is whether the drop represents anything more than a normal seasonal decline or a more fundamental improvement."