The mortgage good news continues. Even though total loans were unchanged month to month, serious delinquencies fell to pandemic lows, according to CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report… (CoreLogic)
- M-O-M: In May 2021, 4.7% of total home mortgages were in some stage of delinquency. Unfortunately, this is unchanged from April.
- Y-O-Y: The delinquency rate was down 2.6-percentage points from May 2020 which is an improvement from a 1.4% year-over-year decrease in April.
When looking at the different stages of delinquency is where the really good news is…
- Early-stage delinquencies were 1.2% in May 2021 which is down from 3% in May 2020.
- Mid-stage delinquencies were 0.3% in May 2021 which is a big drop from 2.8% in May 2020.
- Serious delinquencies were 3.2% in May which is two times that of a year earlier but is down to the lowest rate since the initial jump in serious delinquencies in June 2020.
Dr. Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist for CoreLogic, explains how rising home prices have helped homeowners, even those in forbearance…
- “The rise in home prices has built a substantial home equity cushion for homeowners with a mortgage, reducing the risk of a foreclosure. The CoreLogic Home Price Index recorded an annual increase of 17% in June. This price rise builds home equity. For most borrowers in forbearance, the equity gain means they’ll still have some remaining — even if missed payments are added to their loan balance.”
QUESTION: Will the Facebook economists who predicted a housing crash because of loans in forbearance finally admit they were wrong?