US Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures at Record High

Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures reached record levels in the first quarter of this year, driven higher by increasing housing despair, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported on Thursday.

New foreclosures rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.99 percent of all US home loans, up from 0.83 percent in the fourth quarter, the MBA report highlighted. The total inventory of homes in foreclosure increased to 2.47 percent and the delinquency rate, loans with one or more payments overdue, grew to 6.35 percent. All were the highest in a series that goes back to 1979, the Washington-based trade group said.

"While the foreclosure start rates were up for all types of mortgages, a reflection of the decline in home prices, the magnitude of the national increases is clearly driven by certain loan types and certain states," said Jay Brinkmann, the mortgage bankers group's vice president for research and economics.

The bulk of the problem remains in California and Florida, which reported, respectively, that 9.24 percent and 8.25 percent of subprime ARMs were entering foreclosure, said Brinkmann. "Clearly things in California and Florida are going to get worse before they get better, he concluded.