HomeBuilders

[up-down]

Serious mortgage delinquencies up 147 percent in past year
By Dennis Norman, on October 20th, 2009

Dennis Norman
Yesterday the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s trial mortgage loan modifications under the Obama Administrations Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP) were up more than 40 percent in September 2009 from the previous month. According to the report, mortgage loans that are 60-plus-days delinquent increased to 1,401,000 borrowers in July, up a whopping 147 percent from July, 2008 when there were 566,000 borrowers 60 plus days delinquent.

Here are highlights from the report (all the data, unless noted otherwise is from July 31, 2009):

4.6 percent of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans were 60 plus days delinquent. A scary thought that almost 1 in 20 homeowners with a mortgage in the US fall in this category.

58 percent of the borrowers in this category had a credit score that was equal to or better than 660 at the time they took out the loan. The remaining 42 percent had a credit score below 660 at the time of the loan.

6.76 percent of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans were delinquent. Greater than 1 in 15 homeowners are delinquent on their mortgages. This has increased almost 20 percent since the beginning of the year when the rate was 5.68 percent.

There were 5,492 short sales (a sale at a price that nets less than the total amount due on the mortgage) in July, up 23.6 percent from the month before and up a staggering 268 percent from a year ago.

So far in 2009 there have been 25,251 short sales.