Late mortgage payments rose in the first quarter to an overall national rate of 8.32%, though the 90-plus-day rate and the number of foreclosures started declined, according to figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Based on the MBA's late-payment rate that means roughly $790 billion of one- to four-family loans are in some form of arrears. (National Mortgage News estimates that housing debt in the U.S. fell to $9.5 trillion at March 31, from $9.6 trillion at yearend.)
The trade group singled out the value-ravaged market of Florida, noting that the state remains a significant problem.
"Twenty-four percent of all mortgages in the country that are in foreclosure are in Florida and 23% of the loans in Florida are anywhere from one payment past due to in foreclosure."
MBA chief economist Jay Brinkmann, pointing to improvements in the 90-day and foreclosure rate, said: "Most of these numbers continue to point to a mortgage market on the mend. Short-term delinquencies remain at pre-recession levels."
However, late payments on all prime loans rose to 5.5% at March 31 from 5.48% at yearend.
Also, subprime delinquencies rose almost a full point, to 24.01%, from 23.09% at Dec. 31, the MBA found.
(The trade group reports total late payments and foreclosures as separate data points.)
Meanwhile, late payments on Federal Housing Administration loans fell to 12.03% at the end of the first quarter from 12.27%. Delinquencies on loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, though, rose to 6.93% from 6.67%.
According to interviews over the past few weeks, some servicers are declining to file notices of default on delinquent mortgagors until the nation's largest servicers finally strike a settlement with the state attorneys general over the robo-signing scandal.
