Hurricanes Harvey and Irma contributed to a surge in seriously delinquent mortgages in November.
Of the 77,000 loans that were by 90 days or more late during the month, over 85% or 66,000 were delinquent on their payments because of the two late summer storms that struck Texas and Florida, Black Knight said in its November First Look report. More than 85,000 loans are 90 days or more late on their payments because of Harvey and Irma, according to current estimates. Black Knight's report includes a subset of these loans.
The 13% increase in the seriously delinquent mortgage inventory was the largest monthly increase since 2008.
Florida had the second highest percentage of seriously delinquent mortgages in November at 3.04%, up 85% from November 2016. Texas was fourth at 2.23%, up 52%.
Mississippi was first at 3.21%, but that was a 7% improvement from last year. Louisiana ranked third at 2.68%, which was a 17% improvement.
Delinquency rates normally rise in November from October. The total delinquency rate (loans that are late by 30 days or more but not yet in foreclosure) was 4.55%, up 11 basis points from 4.44% one month prior. That was a typical seasonal increase, Black Knight said.
There are now 2.3 million mortgages that are at least 30 days behind on their payments, up 62,000 from October, because of the storms. The year-over-year increase was 61,000.
Foreclosure inventory represented 0.66% of all loans, down 3.15% from October and 32.67% from November 2016. There were 47,800 foreclosure starts during the month, down 4.75% from October and 20.86% from one year ago.
