Drawing more parallels between the housing market and the economy at large, CoreLogic reported that four of the five states with increases in August delinquency rates also had increases in unemployment.
Year over year, Iowa saw an increase of 0.2 percentage points in its overall delinquency rate, while Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Rhode Island all posted an increase of 0.1 percentage points. The increases in overall delinquency in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin all coincided with an annualized rise in the state unemployment rate during August.
None of those states, however, appear among the five states with the highest 30-plus-day past-due rate in August. Mississippi led the nation at 7.3%, followed by Louisiana, New York, Alabama and West Virginia. Colorado had the lowest delinquency rate in the United States during August at 1.7%.
Overall, the nation’s delinquency rate in August was 3.7%, down from 3.9% one year earlier. In fact, August 2019’s delinquency rate was the lowest for the month in more than 20 years. For August historically, the share of delinquent mortgages peaked 11.1% in 2010.
Since March 2018, the overall delinquency rate each month has been lower than during the pre-crisis period of 2000 through 2006, when the delinquency rate averaged 4.7%.
The serious delinquency rate — the percentage of loans 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure — was 1.3% in August, down from 1.5% one year earlier. It was also below the pre-crisis average of 1.5% and significantly below the peak of 7.5%, set in February 2010.
Also during August 2019, the share of mortgages that were 30 to 59 days past due was 1.8%, unchanged year over year. The share of mortgages 60 to 89 days past due was 0.6% in August, also unchanged from the same month last year.
