Mortgage Delinquencies End 2020 3.4 million Higher

According to Black Knight, a provider of innovative, high performance software, data and analytics for mortgage and home equity lending and servicing, the final mortgage delinquency tally for December reveals that at year’s end, 1.54 million more delinquent and 1.7 million more seriously delinquent mortgages were being reported than at the start of 2020. That is a total of 3.4 million in total at the end of December. Black Knight estimates that year-over-year the 90-day default activity has increased more than 250%. Despite this massive jump from years prior, the national delinquency rate did manage to show modest improvement in December – dropping for the seventh consecutive month to 6.08%, and the lowest level since April. Serious delinquencies also fell to 2.15 million from 2.19 million the month prior but remained a looming reminder of the challenges facing the market in 2021. Thanks to instituted federal policies year-over-year foreclosure sales declined by 70%.