Volume hits near record low after surge of foreclosure activity in previous month
Foreclosure starts fell in September despite the expiry of the federal moratorium on mortgage foreclosures in July, according to recent figures from analytics firm Black Knight.
The moratorium was introduced as part of the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and expired on July 31, leading to a surge of foreclosure activity in August.
Read more: Foreclosure activity increases in Q1, despite moratorium
It was a different story in September, however, with Black Knight data revealing that the volume of foreclosure starts dropping to 3,900 starts, which the firm said was the third lowest number of monthly actions on record and within 6% of the all-time low set in April 2021. And unsurprisingly, the number of loans in active foreclosure fell in turn by 7,000, according to Black Knight.
The analytics firm also revealed that the national delinquency rate fell to 3.91% in September – adding that it’s the first time it’s been below 4% in 18 months, which marks a 2.3% decline from August and 41.3% from the same time last year
The firm said that the improvement could have been stronger if not partially offset by delinquencies “rising by 7,800 in FEMA-declared disaster areas in hurricane-impacted Louisiana and by 11,000 in the state as a whole.”
