by Calculated Risk on 6/24/2022 08:30:00 AM

From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look: Past-Due Mortgages Fall to Third Consecutive Record Low in May; Serious Delinquencies, Foreclosure Starts See Continued Improvement

• The national delinquency rate fell five basis points from April to 2.75% in May, continuing the downward trend in overall delinquencies of the prior two months and marking yet another new low

• Following typical seasonal patterns, early-stage delinquencies – borrowers who have missed a single mortgage payment – edged marginally higher (+0.2%) month over month

• While serious delinquencies saw strong improvement, falling 7% from April, the population of such loans (those 90 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure) remains 45% above pre-pandemic levels

• Despite elevated serious delinquency levels, foreclosure starts dropped 12% from April and continue to hold well below pre-pandemic levels while active foreclosures edged slightly higher

• Prepayment activity fell by 11.1% from the prior month and is now down 59.1% year over year on sharply higher interest rates
emphasis added

According to Black Knight's First Look report, the percent of loans delinquent decreased 1.9% in May compared to April and decreased 42% year-over-year.

Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 2.75% in May, down from 2.80% in April.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process increased in May to 0.33%, from 0.32% in April.  This is increasing from very low levels due to the foreclosure moratoriums.

The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down 1,050,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is up 26,000 properties year-over-year.

Black Knight: Percent Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure Process
	May  2022	Apr 2022	May 2021	May 2020
Delinquent	2.75%	2.80%	4.73%	7.76%
In Foreclosure	0.33%	0.32%	0.28%	0.38%
Number of properties:
Number of properties that are delinquent, but not in foreclosure:	1,461,000	1,496,000	2,511,000	4,123,000
Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory:	174,000	173,000	148,000	200,000
Total Properties	1,635,000	1,669,000	2,659,000	4,323,000