Mortgage delinquency rates edged up only slightly last year but loan performance varied significantly by type, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.
Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were increasingly “rolling to later stages of delinquency,” said Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis.
Seriously delinquent mortgages, or loans at least 90 days past due, rose 70 basis points for FHA loans and 57 basis points for VA loans compared to a year earlier, but only 2 basis points for conventional loans, Walsh said.
In the aggregate, the seasonally adjusted serious delinquency rate was 1.19% in the final quarter. The overall delinquency rate edged up 6 basis points over the quarter to 3.98%, up 10 basis points for the year.
“Conventional delinquencies remain near historical lows,” Walsh said.
However, FHA and VA mortgages delinquencies have been increasing.
“The spread between the FHA and conventional delinquency rates reached 841 basis points, while the VA and conventional spread was 208 basis points,” Walsh said.
By loan type, the delinquency rates for conventional loans were 2.62%. FHA and VA loans had delinquency rates of 11.03% and 4.7%, respectively.
Walsh said the labor market remains strong, but several factors pose risks, including inflation, lower personal savings rates, natural disasters, increasing consumer debt, as well as higher tax and insurance payments.
States with the largest quarterly increases in their overall delinquency rate were Florida (99 basis points), South Carolina (59 basis points), North Carolina (40 basis points), Georgia (39 basis points) and Louisiana (32 basis points).
