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74 NATIONAL SNAPSHOT Regional BORROWERS STRUGGLING IN DISASTER-IMPACTED AREAS Regions recovering from last year's natural disasters showed isolated year-over-year upticks in 30+ day delinquencies. By Molly Boesel In November 2018, 4.1 percent of home mortgages were in some stage of delinquency, down from 5.2 percent a year earlier and the lowest for the month of November in at least 18 years, according to the latest CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report. e measure, also known as the overall delinquency rate, includes all home loans 30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure. For the month of November, the share of delinquent mortgages was highest in November 2009, at 11.5 percent. e share of delinquent mortgages fell below the level from the pre-crisis period (an average of 4.7 percent from 2000 to 2006) starting in March 2018. e serious delinquency rate—defined as 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure—was 1.5 percent in November 2018, down from 2 percent in November 2017. e seri- ous delinquency rate has stood at 1.5 percent since August 2018 and is now back to the average of the pre-crisis level of 1.5 percent. e foreclosure inventory rate—meaning the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process—was 0.4 percent in November 2018, down from 0.6 percent a year earlier. e fore- closure rate was the lowest in at least 18 years, and was below the average pre-crisis level of 0.6 percent. e share of mortgages that were 30–59 days past due—considered early- stage delinquencies—was 2 percent in November 2018, down from 2.2 percent in November 2017. e share of mortgages 60 to 89 days past due was 0.7 percent in November 2018, down from 0.9 percent in November 2017. In addition to delinquency rates, CoreLogic 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. Figure 1 shows that in November the current- to 30-day transition rate remained well below levels during the housing crisis. e November 2018 current- to 30-day rate was 0.9 percent, down from 1 percent a year earlier. e 30- to 60-day transi- tion rate was 15.9 percent in November 2018, down from 23.9 percent in November 2017, while the 60- to 90-day transition rate was 26.2 percent this November, down from 38.1 percent a year earlier. Figure 2 shows the states with the highest and lowest share of mortgages 30 days or more delinquent. In November 2018, that rate was highest in Mississippi at 8.1 percent and lowest in Colorado at 1.9 percent. No states posted an annual increase in the 30-plus-day delinquency rate, and North Dakota was the only state not showing a decrease. Figure 3 shows the 30-plus-day past-due rate for November 2018 for the 10 largest metro areas. New York metro had the highest rate at 5.5 per- cent. Miami, with the second-highest rate at 5.4 percent, saw a sharp decrease in the overall de- linquency rate, falling from 12.7 percent in November 2017. San Francisco had the lowest at 1.4 percent. Houston also saw a large year-over-year decrease in the 30-plus-day delinquency rate, falling from 10.4 percent in November 2017 to 5.2 percent in November 2018. In the wake of last year's hurricane season and devastating wildfires, some Southeastern metropolitan areas and one Northern California market logged relatively large annual gains in the share of mortgages transitioning from current to 30 days past due. e largest such gain was in the Panama City, Florida, metro where the current- to 30-day transi- tion rate rose 5.2 percentage points in November 2018 compared with 12 months earlier. STATS AT A GLANCE The nation's overall delinquency rate was 4.1 percent. The serious delinquency rate was 1.5 percent. Panama City, Florida, logged the highest annual current- to 30-day transition rate, up 5.2 percentage points in November 2018 year-over-year.

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