Hurricanes continue to have a notable impact on mortgage delinquencies, clearly evident by CoreLogic's Loan Performance Insight report.
Serious delinquency rates were up sharply in both Texas and Florida in November, compared to a year ago, while lower in all other states but Alaska, according to CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.
The serious delinquency rate in Texas grew to 2.5% from 1.9% from the previous year, and rose in Florida to 3.9% from 3.2%. In Puerto Rico, the serious delinquency rate spiked 2.7 percentage points to 6.3%.
The serious delinquency rate in the Houston metropolitan area more than doubled to 4.6%, and grew more than one-third in the Miami area to 5.1%.
Comparatively, all stages of delinquency including the foreclosure rate declined on a national scale year-over-year in November, with the serious delinquency rate falling to 2% from 2.3%. This may represent a call to servicers for natural disaster readiness. While things like defaults are issues servicers are prepared for, hurricanes and other natural disasters are not planned, making it imperative for the servicing industry to have
Transition rates were also stable across most of the country, with the exception of areas impacted by the 2017 hurricanes. Nationally, the share of mortgages that shifted from current to 30 days past due remained unchanged from a year ago and were down month-over-month in November from 1.1% to 1%.
"In many of the harder-hit regions, such as the Houston and Miami metropolitan areas, housing stock availability has taken a hit as many homes were damaged and are no longer habitable. As a result, we expect to see further upward pressure on prices and rents for habitable homes, which will continue to erode affordability," Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a press release.
In Florida, the share of mortgages that were 30 or more days delinquent grew to 9.9% from 6.3% year-over-year in November, and in Texas, they rose to 6.7% from 5.6%.
