Black Knight releases Mortgage Monitor for May

Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS, formerly the LPS Data & Analytics division) released their Mortgage Monitor report for May today. According to BKFS, 5.62% of mortgages were delinquent in May, unchanged from April. BKFS reports that 1.91% of mortgages were in the foreclosure process, down from 3.05% in May 2013.

This gives a total of 7.53% delinquent or in foreclosure. It breaks down as:

• 1,670,000 properties that are 30 or more days, and less than 90 days past due, but not in foreclosure.
• 1,169,000 properties that are 90 or more days delinquent, but not in foreclosure.
• 966,000 loans in foreclosure process.

For a total of ​​3,805,000 loans delinquent or in foreclosure in May. This is down from 4,569,000 in May 2013.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph from BKFS shows percent of loans delinquent and in the foreclosure process over time.

Delinquencies and foreclosures are moving down - and might be back to normal levels in a couple of years. 

The second graph from BKFS shows the mortgage origination activity for both refinance and purchase loans.

From Black Knight:

Though refinance activity is still down significantly from the levels seen in 2012 and early last year, it has increased 21 percent since January 2014. Black Knight also found that seasonal purchase activity has picked up, with approximately 897,000 purchase originations through April, a level on par with 2013 (898,000 over the same period), and better than 2012 (847,000). Overall, credit standards do not seem to be easing, as both average loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and credit scores on both purchase and refinance originations remain relatively strict and essentially unchanged.
emphasis added

This fits with the NAR data showing standard equity purchases up slightly this year even as distressed sales decline sharply (many distressed sales are cash buyers). However this doesn't fit with the MBA purchase index.

There is much more in the mortgage monitor.