Delinquency rates across the country rose slightly from the previous month but remain at a 20-year low for November, according to new data from property analytics provider CoreLogic.
Nationwide, delinquency rates were at 3.9 percent year-over-year, up 0.2 percent from the same time last month. In general, however, the rates are still very low — no state saw an overall increase this month.
Foreclosures, in which one’s home is seized by the government due to the owner’s inability to pay, are at 0.4 percent — the same as last year and the lowest sine January 1999. While pockets of Arkansas and Oklahoma saw jumps in delinquencies, a bustling job market and strong economy are keeping most homeowners stable on their mortgages.
“Overall delinquency rates remain at 20-year lows spurred on by tight underwriting standards following the onset of the Great Recession, a robust and accelerating economic cycle over the past five years and the increasing underlying health of the housing economy,” Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in a prepared statement.
CoreLogic
North Carolina and District of Columbia saw the biggest delinquency drops, 0.7 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively. According to CoreLogic, natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires can bring about a momentary spike in delinquency rates — but, if they were low before, the rates will generally bounce back to what they were with time.
“Natural disasters often cause spikes in mortgage delinquencies that gradually recede,” Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic, said in a prepared statement. “The CoreLogic 2019 Natural Hazard Report revealed that delinquency rates in Panama City, Florida, nearly tripled in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Michael in October 2018, but fell back to trend levels by late 2019.”