Seriously Delinquent Mortgages Hit Three-Year Low

By Sari R. Updated on 9/27/2012

Analysts from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency state that at the end of the second quarter, 88.7% of mortgages were current on mortgage payments.  This is a small decrease from the first quarter’s rate of 88.9% of mortgages being current.  However, this is a little increase from 88.1% of mortgages being current during last year’s second quarter.

The percentage of seriously delinquent mortgages (mortgages that are overdue by sixty days or held by borrowers who are bankrupt) dropped to 4.4%, which is the lowest level in 3 years.  This percentage means a 9.2% drop from a year ago at the same time.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency believes that these statistics indicate an improvement of economic conditions and can also be attributed to home retention loan modification programs, servicing transfers, and home forfeiture actions. 

Second quarter mortgages that were 30 to 59 days past due now rests at 2.8%.  This is an increase of 12.1% from the first quarter, but a decrease of 7.5% from last year’s second quarter.

For the purposes of this report, 30.5 million first-lien mortgages worth $5.2 trillion in outstanding balances were covered.  This represents around 60% of all first-lien mortgages in the U.S.