After Eight Straight Months of Declines Mortgage Delinquency Rate Increases in February

Black Knight, a provider of integrated technology, data, and analytics for lenders and services reported on Tuesday (3-23-21), that after eight consecutive months of improvement, the national mortgage delinquency rate rose in February to 6% from 5.85%. The data giant pointed to February’s seasonality as it is a shorter month and ended on a Sunday this year, allowing for fewer days to process payments. Last month’s uptick was mainly driven by an increase in the number of properties that are in early stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due) but are not yet in foreclosure. That figure jumped by 56,000 households in February. The number of loans that were 90 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure, including those in active forbearance, managed to see a modest decline — down 15,000 properties from January. Black Knight said, that at the current rate of improvement — a decline of less than 3% per month — those considered seriously delinquent should fall to 1.8 million by the end of June, and just under 1.7 million at the end of September. It is then that the first wave of forbearance plans are set to reach final expiration under their 18-month forbearance terms. It is important to note that Black Knight’s delinquency numbers count all homeowners who have missed payments, whether they are in forbearance plans or not. That said, borrowers in forbearance should not have missed payments reported to the credit bureaus by their servicers.