Delinquency activity that ended last year on “remarkably even footing” underscored relative stability in mortgage performance heading into 2026, newly released figures show.

The national mortgage delinquency rate remained flat at 3.2% over the year in December. But a growing portion of U.S. cities are observing signs of borrower stress, with 184 out of 384 U.S. metro areas posting annual increases in delinquency rates that month, according to Cotality.

“What stands out this quarter are the differences emerging at the local level,” said Molly Boesel, senior principal economist at Cotality, in analysis accompanying the data and analytics firm’s latest loan performance indicators report.

“While the national picture appears calm, nearly half of metropolitan areas experienced an uptick in overall delinquencies, serious delinquencies and foreclosures,” she continued. “That breadth of localized increases suggests that pockets of households are coming under greater financial strain, even if it’s not yet visible in the national aggregates.”

The nationwide serious delinquency rate was 1.1%, up from 1% a year ago. Early-stage delinquencies were unchanged over the year at 1.6%, even as 23 states posted an increase in delinquency rates in December.

At the state level, Maryland saw its delinquency rate rise the sharpest over the year, up 0.4%, followed by Nevada’s, which increased 0.3%. The Texas cities of Odessa and Laredo were the metro areas where delinquency rates rose the fastest, both climbing 0.8% over the year.

Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia led states with the highest overall delinquency rates in 2025 at 6.1%, 5.8% and 4.4%, respectively.

Houston had the highest delinquency rate among U.S. metros, excluding serious delinquencies, at a rate of 4.5% in December, followed by Miami at 3.9%, Chicago at 3.6% and New York at 3.2%.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has separately reported that loan performance broadly weakened to close out last year, with particular stress among Federal Housing Administration loans. The FHA delinquency rate rose to 11.52% in the fourth quarter, the association said.

The nationwide serious delinquency rate for single-family FHA loans was 4.2% in December, according to Ginnie Mae, the government-run securitizer of federally insured loans, up from 3.4% a year ago.

Illinois had the worst serious delinquency rate among FHA borrowers in December at 5.9%, followed by Georgia at 5.4%, Florida at 4.7% and Texas at 4.6%. Only Georgia and Texas had serious delinquency rates over 4% in December 2024.