Delinquencies Continue at Record Levels
Monday, December 8th 2008 @ 6:59 PM (not yet rated)
Daily Real Estate News | December 8, 2008 |
Delinquencies Continue at Record Levels
One in 10 American home owners with a mortgage were at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, according to a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The increase in the overall delinquency rate was driven by increases in the number of loans 90 or more days past due, primarily in California and Florida. The ailing job market is at fault, the MBA report says.
"Now it's a case of job losses hitting more across the board," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the MBA.
Employers cut 533,000 jobs last month, the most in 34 years, which pushed the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, according to the Labor Department.
Bankers believe there are some hopeful signs. Among them: Loans entering the foreclosure process in the third quarter totaled 1.07 percent of all loans in the third quarter, flat from the second quarter.
Source: The Associated Press, Alan Zibel (12/05/2008)
