The number of late mortgage payments in the US increased from 8.32 percent in the first quarter of this year to 8.44 in the second quarter, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) in Washington reported that home loans overdue by 30 days climbed from 3.35 percent in Q1 to 3.46 percent in Q2, while mortgages overdue by 60 days moderately rose from 1.35 percent to 1.37 percent. Meanwhile, foreclosures fell for the second consecutive quarter this year.
Bloomberg said that a majority of homeowners attributed their failure to remit payment to unemployment.
Jay Brinkmann, Chief Economist of the MBA in Washington, said “delinquencies very much reflect what’s going on in the labour market, and we saw those numbers deteriorate.”
“The slowdown in delinquencies we saw in prior quarters stopped the bleeding, but this uptick could lead to more foreclosures.”
On the upside, Brinkmann noted that those in the “seriously delinquent rate” (mortgages either in default or in foreclosure) dropped to 7.85 percent from 8.1 percent, as banks are gaining ground on cases held back by documentation errors and backlogs.
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