The effects of Hurricane Irma continue to be felt in the Southeast, with Florida the only state to report an increase in its delinquency rate in May.  The rate in the state was up 1 percentage point compared to May 2017 and gave Florida the third highest rate in the nation at 6.2 percent.

CoreLogic, in its Loan Performance Insights Report, said the rest of the nation continues to improve, although Texas, still impacted by Hurricane Harvey, saw rates remain the same as a year earlier.  The national rate was 4.2 percent compared to 4.5 percent in May 2017, the lowest rate for a May in 12 years and within 0.1 percent of the previous low in May 2006. The rate is also well below the pre-crisis period of 2000 to 2006 when the share of delinquent mortgages averaged 4.7 percent.

Within the national number, the early stage delinquency rate, loans 30 to 59 days past due, was 1.8 percent, down from 1.9 percent in May 2017. The rate for serious delinquencies, those 60 to 89 days past due was 0.6 percent, unchanged from a year earlier.

The share of loans in the process of foreclosure (included in the overall rate) commonly called the foreclosure inventory rate is also at the lowest level in 12 years as well as below the pre-crisis norm. The May inventory rate was 0.5 percent compared to 0.7 percent a year earlier.  The 2000 to 2006 level was 0.6 percent.

CoreLogic's report also tracks the rate at which mortgages transition from one stage of delinquency to the next, such as going from current to 30 days past due.  In May that rate remained well below levels during the housing crisis. The current- to 30- day rate had increased in recent months, mainly due to the hurricanes along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts but has since resumed its downward trend and in May was 0.8 percent, unchanged from May 2017. The 30- to 60-day transition rate rose from 13.8 percent to 15.1 percent year-over-year and the 60- to 90-day transition rate was 24.3 percent, down from 24.9 percent a year earlier. 

The two states with delinquency rates higher than Florida's in May were the perennial leaders Mississippi and Louisiana, both over 7 percent. New York and Alabama rounded out the top five. Colorado had the lowest rate at 1.8 percent. Miami had the highest rate of the ten most populous Core-Based Statistical Areas at 6.2 percent and San Francisco had the lowest at 1.5 percent. Both Miami and Houston saw significant year-over-year increases in their delinquency rates - up 1.3 percentage points in Houston and 1.6 percentage points in Miami, also likely due to last fall's hurricanes.