The number of seriously delinquent mortgages reached its lowest level in over eight years, helped by new job creation and higher wages, according to CoreLogic.
The national foreclosure inventory maintained its steady decline through February, falling 23.9% to about 434,000 homes, or about 1.1% of all homes, compared with the like period last year, according to
The number of completed foreclosures fell 10% to 34,000 over the same period.
The number of home loans at least 90 days past due fell by 19.9% to 1.3 million mortgages, or 3.2% of all mortgages, the lowest serious-delinquency rate since November 2007.
Improved rates of delinquencies in nearly every state are due to "more income and improved household finances," Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic's chief economist, said in a news release Tuesday. Job creation averaged 207,000 per month for the first two months of 2016, he added.
"However," Nothaft said, "serious delinquency rates increased in North Dakota and West Virginia, two states affected by price declines for the energy fuel each produces."
