Mortgage delinquencies increased 13% in April from March, but the calendar and seasonality were the primary reasons for the spike, said Black Knight Financial Services.
April ended on a Sunday, which meant that mortgage servicers couldn't process any payments made on the last two days of the month, said Ben Graboske, Black Knight's executive vice president, data and analytics, in a press release. So all months that end on a Sunday usually see a spike in delinquencies for this reason.
Plus, March is the typical calendar-year low point for mortgage delinquencies, so there is almost always a rise coming into April, he added.
The total delinquency rate — loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure — was 4.08% in April, up 12.93% from March, but down 3.58% from last April. As of April 30, there were 2.07 million properties with a delinquent mortgage.
There were 581,100 properties that were seriously delinquent (90 days or more late on the mortgage payments), but this was 8,000 fewer than in March and 149,000 fewer than in April 2016.
Foreclosure starts fell by 12.44% on a month-to-month basis to 52,800, the fewest in a month since January 2005.
