Mortgage delinquencies, foreclosures break recordsMay 19, 2010
AFP/Getty Images/File ? A pre-foreclosure sign is displayed outside a home in Miami,
Florida in 2009. US home foreclosures have ? By ALAN ZIBEL
Ap Real Estate Writer - 8 mins ago
WASHINGTON - The number of homeowners who missed at least one payment on their mortgage
urged to a record in the first quarter of the year, a sign that the foreclosure crisis is far from over.
More than 10 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March
period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That
number was up from 9.5 percent in
the fourth quarter of last year and 9.1 percent a year earlier.
Those figures are adjusted for seasonal factors. For example, heating bills and holiday expenses tend to
push up mortgage delinquencies near the end of the year. Many of those borrowers become current on
their loans again by spring.
Without adjusting for seasonal factors, the delinquency numbers dropped, as they normally do from the
winter to spring.
More than 4.6 percent of homeowners were in foreclosure, also a record. But that number, which is not
adjusted for seasonal factors, was up only slightly from the end of last year.
Jay Brinkmann, the trade group's chief economist, said the foreclosure crisis appears to have stabilized,
as the seasonal adjustments may be exaggerating the change from the previous quarter.
"I don't see signs now that it's getting worse, but it's going to take a while," he said. "A bad situation
that's not getting worse is still bad."
Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are the main catalysts for foreclosures
this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. But homeowners with good credit who
took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Those borrowers made up nearly 37 percent of new foreclosures in the first quarter of the year,
up from 29 percent a year earlier.
The risky subprime adjustable rate loans that kicked off the foreclosure crisis are making up a smaller
share of new foreclosures. They made up 14 percent of new foreclosures in the January-March period,
down from 27 percent a year earlier.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100519/ap_on_bi_ge/us_home_foreclosures;_ylt=Ahm1S904gYLQeAcOkEGZur2yBhIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJsbWhnZzljBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNTE5L3VzX2hvbWVfZm9yZWNsb3N1cmVzBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNtb3J0Z2FnZWRlbGk-
