From the JEC:
Joint Economic Committee
Senator Sam Brownback
Mortgage Delinquencies and Home Foreclosures in the First Quarter
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released data today from its National Delinquency Survey on home foreclosures and late mortgage payments for the 1st quarter of 2008.
Highlights of today’s mortgage data release:
The seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four unit residential properties was 6.35% of all loans outstanding at the end of the 1st quarter, the highest recorded in the MBA survey since 1979.
The delinquency rate is the number of mortgages past due 30 days or more as a percent of the total number of mortgages outstanding.
The delinquency rate does not include loans in the process of foreclosure.
The percent of loans on which foreclosure actions were started during the 1st quarter was 0.99 % on a seasonally adjusted basis (the blue line in the picture below), also the highest on record in the MBA survey since 1979.
Foreclosure start rates were up for all types of mortgages in the 1st quarter of 2008 relative to a quarter earlier, but the rise in the overall foreclosure start rate was largely driven by adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).
Subprime ARMs represented 6% of the loans outstanding and accounted for 39% of the foreclosures started during the 1st quarter. Prime ARMs represented 15% of the loans outstanding and 23% of the foreclosures started.
The percentage of all loans in the foreclosure process was 2.47% at the end of the 1st quarter (blue line in picture below).
According to the MBA, California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada combined represent:
62% of all foreclosures started on prime ARM loans;
84% of the increase in prime ARM foreclosures (from the 4th quarter of 2007 to the 1st quarter of this year);
49% of all subprime ARM foreclosures started in the country in the 1st quarter;
93% of the increase in subprime ARM foreclosures;
29% of prime fixed-rate foreclosures and 60% of the increase in those foreclosures;
25% of subprime fixed-rate foreclosures and 53% of the increase in those foreclosures.






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