51
SOUTHERN
STATES
DOMINATING
DELIQUENT
LOAN VOLUMES
Southern states including Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas held
some of the largest volumes of non-current
loans in the country. As of December 2019,
Mississippi holds the highest volume at
9.99%, though this is a month-over-month
decline from November's 10.44%, and a
0.93% decline year-over-year, according
to Black Knight's First Look at December
2019 data.
All top five states in non-current
percentages have seen marked declines
over the year, with the biggest decline
in Louisiana, where the non-current
percentage fell by 6.81% from December
2018.
The lowest non-current percentages,
meanwhile, remain concentrated on and
around the East Coast, with Colorado still
holding the lowest rate at 1.74%, down
from November's rate of 1.81%. Behind
Colorado falls Washington (1.77%), Oregon
(1.84%), Idaho (1.91%), and California
(2.01%).
As non-current loans have fallen across
the country, default notices, scheduled
auctions and bank repossessions as
foreclosure filings fell too. According to the
Year-End 2019 U.S. Foreclosure Market
Report from ATTOM Data Solutions,
foreclosure actions were down 21% from
2018 and down 83% from a peak of nearly
2.9 million in 2010.
Repossessions dropped as well in 2019,
down 37% from 2018 to 143,955 total
properties.
"The continued decline in distressed
properties is one of many signs pointing
to a much-improved housing market
compared to the bad old days of the Great
Recession," said Todd Teta, Chief Product
Officer for ATTOM Data Solutions. "That
said, there is some reason for concern
about the potential for a change in the
wrong direction, given that residential
foreclosure starts increased in about a third
of the nation's metro housing markets in
2019. Nationally, the number also ticked
up a bit in December. While that's not a
major worry, it's something that should be
watched closely in 2020."
Black Knight also noted that repayment
activity ticked upward at the end of 2019,
indicating a "flattening effect on refinance
activity." After falling by 19% in November,
prepayment rates increased in December,
and Black Knight suggests that the recent
leveling off of interest rates has had a
flattening effect, but prepayments are still
up 126% from this time last year.
Journal
Got something to share
with us? Send it to
Editor@DSNews.com.
