DS News

116 top three overall in the top 114 (Denver was 115) in economic rank. e top city in terms of economic rank was Cape Coral, Florida, but it ranked only 168th out of 182 overall. Rounding out the top 10 cities in terms of total rank were Portland, Oregon, Los Ange- les, California; Seattle, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; San Diego, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Portland, Maine. Ranking as the worst 10 cities for singles, from the bottom were Brownsville, Texas; Pembroke Pines, Florida; Hialeah, Florida; Pear City, Hawaii; South Burlington, Ver- mont; Warwick, Rhode Island; Glendale, California; Lewiston, Maine; Yonkers, New York; and Laredo, Texas, respectively. NORTH DAKOTA North Dakota Borrowers Stay Current After seeing a spike in September, mort- gage delinquencies declined 8.2 percent in October and nearly 18 percent from the same period last year, according to the Black Knight First Look report. One midwestern state that stood out for being in the "bottom five" when it came to low rates of foreclosures and delin- quencies? North Dakota. According to Black Knight's report, North Dakota's "non-current percentage" in October—defined as combining "foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state"—came in at only 2.30 percent non-current for the month. In this regard, North Dakota was bested only by Idaho (2.26 percent), Washington (2.25 percent), Oregon (2.03 percent), and Colorado (1.81 percent). Black Knight's report indicated that there were 165,000 fewer past due loans in October than the previous month. Serious delinquen- cies, the report said, hit a 12-year low after fall- ing by 14,000 from September and by 90,000 on a year-over-year basis. e strong year-over-year improvements were also driven by a continued improvement in delinquencies related to the spike seen after hurricanes Harvey and Irma last year, the Black Knight report said. While foreclosure starts saw a month- over-month increase at 50,600 increasing 26.5 percent over September, the report indicated that these increases were coming off Septem- ber's nearly 18-year low. Despite the uptick, the number of loans in active foreclosures fell 24 percent from the same period last year, with the report highlighting that only 267,000 loans remained in active foreclosure during October, falling by 1,000 from September and by 81,000 from October 2017. e surprising data, the report found, was for mortgage prepays, which increased 14 per- cent from September. However, they remained 29 percent below last year's level. While the number of properties that were 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure declined by 165,000 to approximately 1.8 mil- lion, those that were 90 or more days past due but not in foreclosure declined by 14,000 to 499,000 properties. Mississippi continued to lead the states with the highest percentage of non-current loans, followed by Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, and Arkansas. North Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado were among the states with the least non-current loans. With 2.94 percent of its overall loans in the 90-plus days delinquent list, Mississippi also topped the five states with 90-plus days delinquent percentage, followed by Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Florida led the top five states by 6-month improvement in non-current percentage with a decline of 28.92 percent, followed by Alaska, Oregon, Texas, and New Jersey. WISCONSIN Madison Offers a Catch-22 for Veterans Transitioning to civilian life after service, for over 19.6 million veterans currently living in the U.S., comes with a host of issues includ- ing lack of housing and employment oppor- tunities, as well as the need for educational assistance. WalletHub recently released its comprehensive list of the best places for vet- erans to settle down in America. Wisconsin's capitol city earned high marks when it comes to having jobs that lend themselves toward the types of skills military veterans bring to the workforce, but that potential isn't necessarily translating to actual veteran hires. WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across the U.S. on the basis of livability, af- fordability, and veteran-friendliness. Accord- ing to the study, Austin, Texas topped the list of the most veteran-friendly city with a total score of 74.02, a ' jobs' rank of 9, an economy rank of 17, quality of life at 5, and a health rank of 20. Other cities in the top 10 include Scott- sdale, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Raleigh, North Carolina; Gilbert, Arizona; ILLINOIS Chicago & Minneapolis Rank Among Top Cities for Singles Atlanta, Denver, and San Francisco rank as the top cities for singles, according to a new report from WalletHub, but the Midwest held its own on the list with two cities cracking the top 10: Chicago and Minneapolis (with Madi- son, Wisconsin, sneaking in at No. 11). WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 34 key indicators including rents paid by singles in some of the most expensive cities. e dataset also took into account the share of single population to the number of online dating opportunities to nightlife op- tions per capita. e report indicated that the most expen- sive cities in terms of rent for a one-bedroom apartment were New York, which was ranked 182nd, followed by Boston, Massachusetts; Hialeah, Florida; Miami, Florida; and San Francisco. e rankings take into consideration a variety of factors, including economics, "fun and recreation," and dating opportunities to create the overall ranking. e economics rank includes factors like the monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment and the cost of meals, movies, and other items. e top overall cities tended to do poorly in terms of economic rank, with none of the is the expected decline in the total value of typical Chicago homes in 2019. Source: Realtor.com Forecast STAT INSIGHT 2%

• Cover