New York State’s delinquency rate declined in the fourth quarter, a report released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows.
The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on residential properties was 7.98 percent, down from 8.12 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2011. Historically, delinquency rates rise in the fourth quarter, thanks in part to holiday spending and heating bill increases. But the data is not seasonally adjusted.
New York ranked 26th among states in delinquency rate, but placed below the national fourth-quarter average of 8.15 percent. But the percentage of loans in New York on which foreclosure was started rose to 0.89 percent from 0.82 percent in the fourth quarter and the percenatage of loans in foreclosure also rose 21-hundredths of a percentage point to 5.88 percent.
In general, states with a judicial process are seeing an increasing number of loans in the foreclosure process, according to the MBA.
Across the nation, the delinquency rate decreased to 8.15 percent in the fourth quarter, from 8.20 in the third quarter. The percentage of loans on which foreclosures were started was 0.99 percent, and the percentage of loans in foreclosure fell to 4.38 percent.
“By several measures, mortgage delinquencies are about half way back to long-term, pre-recession levels,” said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the MBA. “The total delinquency rate peaked at 10.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010. It now stands at 7.6 percent, about half way to the longer-term pre-recession average of roughly 5 percent. The rate of foreclosure starts peaked in the third quarter of 2009 at 1.4 percent but has now dropped to 1 percent, about half way to the longer-term average of slightly under .5 percent.”
However, Brinkmann noted that the local numbers paint a more accurate picture of real estate markets than national ones do. — Adam Fusfeld
