DS News

76 NATIONAL SNAPSHOT Regional THE PEACE GARDEN STATE DEFIES DELINQUENCY TRENDS With nationwide delinquency rates dipping to two-decade lows, North Dakota proved to be an outlier. By Molly Boesel In January 2019, 4% of home mortgages were in some stage of delinquency , down from 4.9% a year earlier and the lowest for the month of January in at least 20 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 January, historically, the share of delinquent mortgages peaked in 2010, at 12%. Since March 2018, the overall delinquency rate each month has been lower than during the pre-crisis period of 2000-2006, when the rate averaged 4.7%. e serious delinquency rate—defined as 90 days or more past due, including loans in fore- closure—was 1.4% in January 2019, down from 2.1% in January 2018. e serious delinquency rate for January was below the average of 1.5% for the 2000-2006 pre-crisis period. e foreclosure in- ventory rate—meaning the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process—was 0.4% in January 2019, down from 0.6 percent a year earlier. January's foreclosure rate was the lowest for that month in at least 20 years and was below the average pre-crisis level of 0.6%. Rising home prices have led to record amounts of home equity, reducing the risk of foreclosure. e share of mortgages that were 30-59 days past due—considered early-stage delinquencies—was 1.9% in January 2019, down from 2% in January 2018. e share of mortgages 60-89 days past due was 0.7% in January 2019, down from 0.8% in January 2018. 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 January 2019 the current- to 30-day transition rate remained well below levels during the housing crisis. e January current- to 30-day rate was 0.8%, unchanged from a year earlier. e 30- to 60-day transition rate was 14.9% in January, up from 14% in January 2018, while the 60- to 90-day transi- tion rate was 24.9% last January, down from 26.5% a year earlier. Figure 2 shows the states with the highest and lowest share of mortgages 30 days or more delinquent. In January 2019, that rate was highest in Mississippi at 8% and lowest in Colorado at 1.8%. North Dakota, up by 0.1% points, was the only state to post an annual increase in the 30-plus-day delinquency rate. Figure 3 shows the 30-plus-day past-due rate for January 2019 for the 10 largest metropolitan areas. e New York metro had the highest rate at 5.2%. Miami, with the second-highest rate at 5.1%, saw a sharp decrease in the overall delin- quency rate, falling from 10.5% in January 2018. San Francisco had the lowest 30-plus-day delin- quency rate in January 2019 at 1.3%. Houston also saw a large year-over- year decrease, from 9.1% in January 2018 to 5% in January 2019. Outside of the largest 10, a dozen U.S. metropolitan areas posted an annual increase in their overall delinquency rate, with the highest gains in five hurricane- ravaged parts of the Southeast (in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina) and one in Northern California's Chico metro area, home of last year's devastating "Camp Fire." STATS AT A GLANCE The nation's overall delinquency rate was 4%. No state logged an annual gain in its serious delinquency or foreclosure rate; only North Dakota posted a gain in the overall delinquency rate. The New York metro showed the highest 30-plus-day past-due rate at 5.2%.

• Cover