Black Knight said on Thursday that the national delinquency rate fell back by 7.27 percent in July, erasing last month's increase that was caused in party by the calendar.  The new rate, 3.46 percent of all active mortgages, is the lowest of any July in the company's records that date back to 2000.

That information was included in Black Knight's "first look" at July's loan performance metrics most of which show continuing improvement in mortgage loan delinquencies.  The number of mortgages that were 30 or more days past due during the month, excluding those in foreclosure, was 1.8 million, a decrease of 143,000 since June.  The end of that month fell on a Sunday which Black Knight says typically causes a spike in delinquencies as late arriving payments don't get posted.  The number of delinquencies is down 54,000 from July 2018.

Serious delinquencies (those 90 days or more past due but not in foreclosure) fell by 11,000 month-over-month and 84,000 on an annual basis to 444,000 and 39,200 loans were put into foreclosure, a 2.24 percent decline from June and 18.84 percent below starts in July of last year.

The foreclosure inventory, loans in the process of foreclosure, numbered just over a quarter million in July, 1,000 fewer loans than the previous month and down 35,000 year-over-year.

Black Knight said the recent drop in interest rates again sent the prepayment rate soaring. The rate jumped 26 percent compared to June and is 58 percent higher than last year at this time.

The company says it will provide additional analysis of performance data in its next Mortgage Monitor. It will be released on September 9.