Report sheds light on how inflation impacted delinquency and foreclosure figures
Overall, US mortgage delinquencies crept up in July from earlier in 2022 but remained near historic lows, according to CoreLogic’s latest Loan Performance Insights report.
About 3% of all mortgage loans nationwide were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure). This marks the 16th consecutive month of annual decline, down 1.2% from 4.2% in July 2021.
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The national foreclosure rate remained virtually unchanged at 0.3% since March but inched up by one basis point from July 2021.
“This slight bump mirrors metro-level trends, with almost two-thirds of areas that CoreLogic tracks posting small annual foreclosure gains,” CoreLogic said in a statement. “The minor uptick in foreclosures may be due to mortgage forbearance periods and moratoriums ending for some homeowners, while the increase in delinquencies could indicate that inflation is negatively impacting others’ abilities to make monthly payments.”
Foreclosure inventory rate, or the share of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process, increased one basis point to 0.3%, while the share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due increased one basis point to 0.7%.
“Early-stage delinquencies are showing a small but clear increasing trend on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis,” said CoreLogic principal economist Molly Boesel. “While the share of mortgages that are 30 to 89 days past due remains below the pre-pandemic level, the slight increase is occurring in most areas of the country and could indicate that more borrowers are having trouble making their monthly payments.”
