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Delinquency rate increase the largest on record, Black Knight says

April’s jump in the delinquency rate is the largest single-month increase in history, according to new data from Black Knight.

The delinquency spike is the latest quantitative evidence of the coronavirus outbreak’s ongoing economic impact, as many homeowners were faced with tough choices on making their monthly loan payments while enduring financial hardship. Some 3.6 million homeowners were past due on their mortgages at the end of April, most since January 2015.

That number includes both homeowners past due on mortgage payments who are not in forbearance, as well as borrowers in active forbearance plans who did not make a mortgage payment in April. It also includes about 211,000 who are in active foreclosure.

With 1.6 million homeowners seeing their loans go past due, April’s delinquency rate came in at 6.45%. That nearly doubles March’s figure of 3.39%, with the monthly increase nearly three times the previous record (posted in late 2008) for a single month.

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Later-stage delinquencies saw a rise as well, with the number of seriously delinquent mortgages (90 days or more overdue) growing by 14% from March to April.

Among the country’s 100 largest metro areas, Miami held the dubious distinction of largest monthly delinquency increase. The Florida city saw a jump in past-due mortgages of 7.2%, followed by Las Vegas (6.2%) and New York (5.4%).

Nevada led all states in monthly delinquency increases, springing 5.2% to a delinquency rate of almost 8%. New Jersey was a close second with 5.1% month-over-month delinquency growth, followed by New York at 4.9%.

Foreclosure numbers, however, plummeted in April thanks to foreclosure moratoriums in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both foreclosure starts and foreclosure completions sank to record lows during the month. Foreclosure starts fell 73.2% month to month and 82.1% year over year to 7,400, while foreclosure completions fell 89.6% monthly and 93.5% annually.

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