by Calculated Risk on 6/20/2019 09:52:00 AM

From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look: Continued Improvement Pushes Mortgage Delinquencies to New Record Low in May; Prepayment Activity Doubles Over Past Four Months

• The national delinquency rate has fallen for the third consecutive month, hitting 3.36% in May, its lowest level since Black Knight began reporting the metric in January 2000

• Both early-stage and serious delinquencies fell from April, as did loans in active foreclosure, bringing total non-current inventory – all loans past due, including foreclosures – to its lowest point since early 2005

• Foreclosure starts also fell month-over-month to 39,000, the fewest of any month in more than 18 years

• Prepayment activity jumped another 24% in May, more than doubling over the past four months to reach its highest level in more than two years

According to Black Knight's First Look report for May, the percent of loans delinquent decreased 3.0% in May compared to April, and decreased 7.5% year-over-year.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased 1.6% in May and were down 17.4% over the last year.

Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 3.36% in May, down from 3.47% in April.

The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased in May to 0.49% from 0.50% in April.

The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down 107,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is down 48,000 properties year-over-year.

Black Knight: Percent Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure Process
	May 2019	Apr 2019	May 2018	May 2017
Delinquent	3.36%	3.47%	3.64%	3.79%
In Foreclosure	0.49%	0.50%	0.59%	0.83%
Number of properties:
Number of properties that are delinquent, but not in foreclosure:	1,760,000	1,812,000	1,867,000	1,972,000
Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory:	255,000	259,000	303,000	421,000
Total Properties	2,015,000	2,072,000	2,171,000	2,348,000