Black Knight Financial Services, a division of Fidelity National Financial, has released its "first look" at November mortgage performance data. The company provides this monthly preview of the data, one or more aspect of which is featured in greater detail in the subsequent publication of its Mortgage Monitor report.
The U.S. delinquency rate accelerated in November, rising 11.82 percent from October to 6.08 percent, the first time the national rate has been above 6 percent since last February. The increase represents a gain of 329,000 mortgages that are 30 days or more past due but not yet in foreclosure to a total of 3.09 million. Despite the monthly increase the national delinquency rate is still 5.69 percent below the rate in November 2013; 153,000 fewer delinquent mortgages.
Of that total Black Knight counts 1.16 million as seriously delinquent, that is 90 or more days past due but not in foreclosure. This is 62,000 more seriously delinquent loans than the company reported in October but the number is down 120,000 from the previous November.
The pre-sale or foreclosure inventory now stands at 829,000 properties or 1.63 percent of all mortgaged homes, a month-over-month change of -3.50 percent or 29,000 fewer homes. On an annual basis the inventory has fallen by 427,000 units or 34.70 percent and is at its lowest level since January 2008.
There were 73,900 homes that entered the foreclosure process during the month, down 9.21 percent from October and 29.55 percent year-over-year. The November foreclosure starts were the fewest in any month since May 2006.
Black Knight says the total number of distressed homes, past due and/or in foreclosure was 3.92 million at the end of November, a monthly increase of 300,000 but 580,000 fewer than in November 2013. Foreclosure sales during the month represented 1.49 percent of seriously delinquent mortgages, a 26.51 percent decrease from October and 5.69 from a year earlier.
Mississippi has the highest percentage of delinquent mortgages at 14.88 percent followed in order by New Jersey, Louisiana, New York, and Florida. The states showing the greatest deterioration in mortgage performance over the last six months are Wyoming where non-current mortgages have increased by nearly 15 percent followed distantly by Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Increases in non-current mortgages in those states over the last six months ranged from 10.90 to 9.11 percent.
Black Knight also notes that the monthly mortgage prepayment rate decreased by 6.62 percent from October to November and by 3.68 percent compared to the previous year. The rate was 0.91 percent at the end of November.
Black Knight derives its statistics from its loan-level database of mortgage assets which represents approximately two-thirds of the overall market. The Mortgage Monitor will be released on January 12.
