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70 NATIONAL SNAPSHOT Regional FORECLOSURE RATE BACK TO PRECRISIS LEVELS Judicial states continue to have higher foreclosure and serious delinquency rates. By Archana Pradhan With the unemployment rate at an 18-year low, CoreLogic's U.S. home price index above the pre-Recession peak, and lenders produc- ing high-quality mortgage underwriting, more homeowners are remaining current with their mortgage payments. e number of foreclosures is dwindling dramatically nationwide. As of April 2018, the foreclosure rate—the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process—was 0.6 percent nationally, down from almost 4 percent at its peak. e national foreclosure rate is back to prehousing-crisis levels. e judicial states continue to have a higher foreclosure rate, but the gap between judicial and nonjudicial is narrowing. Figure 1 shows that judicial foreclosure states, collectively, con- tinued to have a much higher average foreclosure rate (0.9 percent) in April 2018 than nonjudicial states (0.3 percent). ough the foreclo- sure rate was back to pre-housing crisis for nonjudicial states, the foreclosure rate for judicial states was slightly higher compared to the pre-crisis level. As of April 2018, judicial states had 42 percent of the nation's mortgages outstanding but 68 percent of all loans in foreclosure. More than one-half of the loans in fore- closure in April 2018 were originated between 2004–2008 (Figure 2). Fourteen percent of the nation's mortgages outstanding were origi- nated from 2004–2008, while 58 percent of all loans currently in foreclosure were originated from 2004–2008. A higher proportion of loans outstanding from judicial states were in fore- closure as of April compared with non-judicial state loans. Of loans made in judicial states from 2004–2008, 16 percent were still outstanding. Of loans currently in foreclosure from these states, 60 percent were originated between 2004–2008. In nonjudicial states, 13 percent of their mortgages outstanding as of April originated from 2004–2008 but 53 percent of their loans in foreclosure as of April originated from 2004–2008. STATS AT A GLANCE The serious delinquency rate—the share of loans 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure— was 1.9 percent in April 2018. This was down slightly from 2 percent in April 2017. The collective serious delinquency rate in nonjudicial states was 1.3 percent, compared to 2.6 percent in judicial states.

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