The rate of mortgage delinquency in Utah continues to improve, according to the latest figures from Corelogic, a California-based property information and analytics firm. In the Salt Lake City market, 3.0 percent of mortgages were delinquent by at least 30 days (including those in foreclosure) in September compared with 3.4 percent in September 2016. Those in the seriously delinquent category, defined as 90 or more days past due, totaled 0.9 percent in September compared with 1.3 percent in September 2016. The foreclosure inventory rate — homes in some stage of foreclosure — for this September was 0.2 percent compared with 0.3 percent a year earlier.
Nationally, 5 percent of mortgages were in some stage of delinquency in September. This represents a 0.2 percentage point year-over-year decline in the overall delinquency rate compared with September 2016 when it was 5.2 percent.
In September, the foreclosure inventory rate nationwide was 0.6 percent, down from 0.8 percent in September 2016. Both August and September of this year experienced the lowest foreclosure inventory rate since June 2007 when it was also 0.6 percent and the September foreclosure inventory rate was the lowest for the month of September in 11 years when it was 0.5 percent in September 2006.
One delinquency statistic that rose in September was the early-stage delinquency that measures mortgages that recently went delinquent. The early-stage rate is an indication of the health of the mortgage market and current trends. The rate for early-stage delinquencies was 2.4 percent in September, up 0.3 percentage points from 2.1 percent in September 2016.
“September’s early-stage delinquency rate increased by 0.3 percent from a year ago, the largest increase since June 2009. This does not reflect a deterioration in credit, but rather the impact of the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “September’s early-stage delinquency transition rate rose to 2.6 percent in Texas and it rose to 3.2 percent in Florida, which is higher than the 1 percent that’s typical for both states. Texas and Florida’s early-stage delinquency transition rates in September are much lower than New Orleans in September 2005 when the transition rate reached 17.4 percent as a result of Hurricane Katrina.”