Late payments from borrowers living in areas hardest hit by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were responsible for October's increase in loan delinquencies.
Over 229,000 past due mortgages are attributed to the two storms, said Black Knight in its first look report. Most of the late loans were secured by properties affected by Hurricane Irma (163,000), with the remaining 66,000 were in areas hit by Hurricane Harvey.
There was a 4 basis point increase in the national delinquency rate compared with September to 4.44%. Every state but Florida and Texas had fewer delinquencies compared with the previous month. The delinquency rate in October 2016 was 4.35%.
While Mississippi had the largest percentage of late loans at 10.62%, Florida was second at 9.90%, up 36% from September and 55% from one year ago. Texas had the fifth largest percentage of late mortgages at 7.32%, up 23% from October 2016.
Nationwide there were 2.26 million properties at least 30 days late on their mortgage payment but not yet in foreclosure. This was up 17,000 from September and 60,000 from October 2016.
Seriously delinquent properties – those 90 days late on their payment but not yet in foreclosure – were 589,000 of total, an increase of 13,000 from the previous month, but down by 88,000 from one year prior.
There were 50,200 foreclosure starts in October, up 11% from September but down 11% from October 2016.
The number of properties in active foreclosure was 348,000, down by 156,000 from Oct. 31, 2016. It is the first time since 2006 that the foreclosure inventory was below 350,000, Black Knight said.
October's prepayment rate was 1.12%, a 17% increase from September but a 25% reduction in activity compared with one year ago.
