By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2011 The national mortgage delinquency rate for homeowners that are 60 or more days past due decreased in the first quarter of 2011 marking the fifth consecutive quarterly decline according to a report released today by TransUnion. The report shows mortgage delinquencies for the first quarter of 2011 were down 3.4 percent from the prior quarter and down 8.6 from a year ago. Continue reading “Mortgage Loan Delinquency Rate Decreased for 5th Consecutive Quarter; Mortgage Loan Demand down as well“
By Dennis Norman, on February 17th, 2011 The Mortgage Bankers Association released the results of it’s National Delinquency Survey for the 4th quarter of 2010 and it shows very mixed results. On the positive side of things, overall mortgage loan delinquency in the U.S. has dropped to 8.22 percent which is the lowest rate since 4th quarter 2008 when the rate was 7.88 percent. On the flip side of the coin, the overall foreclosure rate for the quarter was 4.63 percent which ties the highest rate on record which was hit in the 1st quarter of 2010. Continue reading “Mortgage loan delinquency hits 2 year low; foreclose rate ties highest on record“
By Dennis Norman, on November 15th, 2010 
Last week the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the group that is supposed to figure out how to rescue our country out of the financial quicksand it’s in) issued a draft proposal of a plan the committee says “will make America better off tomorrow than it is today”.
In addition to such enlightening statements such as “America cannot be great if we go broke” the report outlines a plan that makes five basic recommendations: Continue reading “Mortgage Bankers Cautions Against Cutting Back Mortgage Interest Deduction“
By Dennis Norman, on October 15th, 2010  Dennis Norman
In a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, John A. Courson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said that the MBA “opposes the practice of private third parties, such as developers, builders, licensing companies and real estate brokers, imposing private transfer fee covenants on residential real estate for the purpose of extracting future income.” However, in his letter Mr. Courson goes on to say that the “MBA is concerned thatencumbering housing transactions with these types of PTFs will impede the marketability and affect the valuation of properties and thus the value of the loans and securities backed by such loans.” In addition, the MBA points out that “distinctions among PTFs (private transfer fees) are necessary” as they do not oppose private transfer fee covenants that are: Continue reading “Mortgage Bankers urge Feds not to ban all private transfer fees“
By Dennis Norman, on September 30th, 2010 “It is particularly disheartening then that lenders are often the subject of ill considered accusations regarding discrimination, accusations based upon analyses that lack statistical rigor” – Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics
 Dennis Norman
This week the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released a paper, “A Review of Statistical Problems in the Measurement of Mortgage Market and Credit Risk” conducted by Professor Anthony M. Yezer of the George Washington University and sponsored by MBA’s Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA). This paper examines the fundamental assumptions that are often used as an analysis of whether their is discrimination present in the process of mortgage lending. Continue reading “‘Flawed models’ are cause of false mortgage discrimination findings“
By Dennis Norman, on May 20th, 2010 1st Quarter Delinquencies; Up? Down? He said – She Said…

If you frequent this site, then you may recall that a little over a week ago (May 10th to be exact) I wrote a post that said the delinquency rate for homeowners mortgages had dropped in the first quarter of this year, the first drop since 2006. Now the post title says delinquencies have increased, so what gives?
Well, for one thing, different sources of information. The “good” delinquency report came from TransUnion and they get their data by doing a “random sampling” of their database of 27 million home mortgages, and then determine how borrowers are performing from that sample I assume. Today’s data comes from the Mortgage Bankers Association which, according to their report, pulls their information from 44.3 million loans which represents approximately 85 percent of all the “first-mortgage” loans in the US.
So, assuming my information is correct in terms of methodology, I would say the MBA data paints a much more accurate picture of the market, and in this case a more bleak picture.
Highlights from the MBA Report:
- The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 10.06 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of this year.
- This represents an increase of 6.2 percent in the delinquency rate from the fourth quarter of 2009 and a 10.3 percent increase from a year ago.
- Foreclosure actions were started on 1.23 percent of the outstanding loans in the first quarter of this year.
- This is just a slight increase from the prior quarter when the rate was 1.20 percent but is a decrease of about 1 percent from a year ago.
“Seasonally Adjusted” could be the problem too:
If you ever read anything I write about real estate market stats, then you know I do not like “Seasonally Adjusted” numbers. Well, the MBA’s chief economist, Jay Brinkmann, said “the issue this quarter is that the seasonally adjusted delinquency rates went up while the unadjusted rates went down. Delinquency rates traditionally peak in the fourth quarter and fall in the first quarter and we saw that first quarter drop in the data. The question is whether the drop represents anything more than a normal seasonal decline or a more fundamental improvement. Most importantly, the normal seasonal drop is coming right at the point where we believe delinquencies could potentially be declining and the problem for the statistical models is determining which is which”.
Where we are headed:
We have TransUnion’s data showing an improvement and the MBA, non-seasonally adjusted data showing improvement as well, so perhaps this is an indicator that we are turning the corner? I think the April delinquency rates when they are published will help us see where things are headed.
By Dennis Norman, on March 9th, 2010  Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its report on the performance of commercial and multifamily mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2009. Their last report from a year ago showed that commercial and multifamily mortgages were among the best performing loans held by banks and thrifts. Now, a year later, the data still looks good and shows that commercial and multifamily mortgages continue to have the lowest charge off rate of all loan types at banks and thrifts and also perform better than their overall portfolios as well.

This is good news for an already-struggling banking industry, especially since, according to the MBA report, commercial and multifamily loans together account for 35 percent of all bank loan holdings (residential loans, including 1 to 4 families, make up 26 percent of the bank loan holdings).
Highlights from the report (all data is as of end of fourth quarter, 2009):
- Mortgage Delinquency –
- 7.30 percent of all loans and leases held by banks and thrifts were 30 or more days past due.
- 5.06 percent of commercial mortgages were 30 or more days past due.
- 5.64 percent of multifamily mortgages were 30 or more days past due.
- 4.39 percent of commercial and industrial loans were 30+ days past due.
- Construction loans had the highest delinquency rate at 18.56 percent 30+ days past due, followed next by single-family mortgages at 12.49 percent.
- Surprisingly (at least to me) credit card delinquency rates were about half that of single-family mortgages at 6.28 percent.

By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2009

- Dennis Norman
For the first year or so of the real estate slump, it appeared to just be concentrated in the residential market, specifically homes and condos. However, over the past few months the attention has shifted more and more to the commerical and multi-family markets as well as the economy remains weak.
By Dennis Norman, on November 20th, 2009 Missouri ranks 21st in delinquencies and 30th in foreclosures
According to a report just issued by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the mortgage delinquency rate on one-to-four-unit residential properties in the U.S. rose to a new record rate of 9.64 percent. Here in Missouri, the delinquency rate is slightly lower at 9.41 percent.
Included in the MBA’s report as a “delinquency” are loans that are at least one payment past due, but does NOT include loans somewhere in the process of foreclosure. At the end of third quarter 2.05 percent of mortgage loans in Missouri were in the foreclosure process. Therefore 11.46 percent of mortgage loans in Missouri are actually delinquent once we add in the ones in foreclosure. Continue reading “Almost 1 in 8 Missourians are delinquent on mortgage payments according to MBA report“
By Dennis Norman, on October 14th, 2009  Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending October 9, 2009. The report showed an increase of 1.8 percent in mortgage loan applications from the week as interest rates inched back above 5 percent for the first time in four weeks.
Refi’s continue to dominate the mortgage application activity with 67.4 percent of all mortgage loan applications being refinances. Continue reading “Mortgage rates increase; loan applications decrease“
By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2009  Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending October 2, 2009. The report showed an increase of 16.4 percent in mortgage loan applications from the week before fueled by interest rates remaing below 5 percent.
Unfortunately interest rates seem to be doing more for existing homeowners and the mortgage industry than investors and the real estate market at refi’s for the week made up 66.3 percent of the mortgage loan application activity. Over the past four weeks shows homeowners refinancing existing loans is up 6.7 percent while borrowers financing the purchase of a home is only up a scant 0.2 percent. Continue reading “Mortgage interest rates on 30 year loan stay below 5 percent for third consecutive week“
By Dennis Norman, on September 23rd, 2009  Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending September 18, 2009. The report showed an increase of 12.8 percent in mortgage loan applications from the week before fueled by interest rates dropping below 5 percent for the first time since mid-May.
The bulk of the activity (63.8 percent of all applications) were homeowners refinancing their existing mortgages. Over the past four weeks shows homeowners refinancing existing loans is up 6.8 percent while borrowers financing the purchase of a home is only up 0.7 percent.
Interest rates and fees for the week: Continue reading “Interest rates drop below 5 percent for 30 year fixed rate loan; applications increase“
By Dennis Norman, on September 9th, 2009  Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending September 4, 2009. The report showed an increase of 17.0 percent in borrowers applying for home mortgages to buy a home from the week before. This marks the largest gain in the index since early April, putting the index at the highest level since the first week of January.
There was a massive increase of over 22 percent from the week before for borrowers refinancing their existing home mortgage making . This the biggest jump in the increase since mid-March. Continue reading “Mortgage rates drop; Borrowers refinancing jumps over 22 percent for the week“
By Dennis Norman, on August 22nd, 2009

- Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
All the news lately about the housing market, home sales in particular, has been encouraging and showing signs of stabilization in the real estate market and demonstrating that the real estate market may have seen the worst. Just when you think you may be through the storm though you see another dark cloud lurking in the distance. For the real estate market this dark cloud could very well be mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.
At the end of this week the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that serious mortgage delinquencies (homeowners that are 90 or more days past due on their house payments or are already in foreclosure proceedings) reached record levels in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and surpassing the record set in the prior quarter. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association statistics over 13 percent of all loans are now past due and 1 in 12 borrowers is seriously delinquent on their mortgage. This is a 45 percent increase from a year ago when 1 in 22 borrowers were seriously delinquent and a whopping 70 percent increase from two years ago when only it was 1 in 40. Continue reading “One in twelve borrowers seriously delinquent on their mortgage“
|
Recent Articles
|