The Mortgage Bankers Association recently released their National Delinquency Survey for 1Q06. While some parts of the country were still feeling the effects of last summer's Hurricane Katrina -- reflected in the substantially higher delinquency rates in Louisiana and Mississippi -- the majority of data saw a decrease from the end of last year.
The overall delinquency and foreclosure rates, for instance, declined over the first quarter of 2006. According to the report, the seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties was 4.41% in the first quarter, down 29 basis points from 4.70% in the fourth quarter of 2005. On a year-to-year basis, however, the delinquency rate increased 10 basis points from the first quarter of 2005 rate of 4.31%.
In terms of new foreclosures, the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process during the quarter, as well as the percentage of loans that are in the foreclosure process at the end of the quarter, were both down one basis point from the fourth quarter of 2005. From a year ago, the inventory of loans was down 10 basis points from 1.08%.
The percent of serious delinquencies -- which the report defines as the non-seasonally adjusted percentage of loans that are 90 days or more delinquent or in the process of foreclosure -- was up from the same period last year but down from last quarter.
"The first quarter decrease in overall SA delinquencies...was driven by a large decrease in the '30 to 59 days' delinquency category," said the report. "On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the percentage of loans past due 30 to 59 days decreased 23 basis points from 2.85 % to 2.62 %, whereas the percentage of loans past due 60 to 89 days fell five basis points from 0.83% to 0.78% and the percentage of loans past due 90 days or longer fell one basis point from 1.02 %to 1.01%."
The seasonally adjusted delinquency rate decreased during the first quarter for all loan types, except Department of Veterans Affairs loans, added the report.
