St. Louis Foreclosures and Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record Levels in March

Dennis Norman

A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in March of 1.49 percent up slightly from February’s rate of 1.44 percent and an increase of 39.3 percent from the year prior when the rate was 1.07 percent.

The national foreclosure rate for March remains over twice the rate of St. Louis at 3.23 percent and was an increase of 73.9 percent from a year ago when the national foreclosure rate was 2.32 percent.

No End In Site

Unfortunately, I don’t think we are going to see much, if any, improvement in the foreclosure rate anytime soon.  The rate of serious mortgage delinquencies continues to rise.  For March 2010, 6.22 percent of the home loans in St. Louis were 90 days or more delinquent on their mortgage payments, an increase of 55 percent from a year ago when the delinquency rate in St. Louis was 4.02 percent.

Nationally, the rate of serious delinquency on home mortgages in March 2010 hit 8.93 percent, an increase of 54.23 percent from a year ago when the national rate was 5.79 percent.

Continued Pressure on the Market

For the past couple of months we have seen some good reports come out about the housing industry which are indicating that the market may have bottomed out and is starting to stabilize a little finally.  Unfortunately, foreclosures bring a lot of downward pressure on the housing market and with the rising foreclosure and delinquency rate, we are assured of feeling this pressure for some time to come.  If the economy could rebound strong, unemployment drop, and interest rates remain affordable, then perhaps the housing market could absorb this inventory of foreclosures and their downward pressure on pricing, but that is a big IF.

 

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