Foreclosure market reaches record low

Three point seven percent of all U.S. mortgages were delinquent – at least 30 days past due, including foreclosures – in December, according to data released today.

That was a slight decline from December 2018 and the lowest for the last month of the year in more than 20 years, CoreLogic reported.

Also in December, the foreclosure inventory rate – which measures the share of mortgages in foreclosure – was 0.4 percent, unchanged year over year. Last December’s foreclosure inventory rate, like each of the 13 months before it, was the lowest for any month since at least January 1999.

Early-stage delinquencies, defined as 30 to 59 days past due, was 1.8 percent in December, down from two percent in December 2018.

In the Inland Empire, 3.6 percent of all mortgages were in some state of delinquency, a slight decline from the end of 2018. The foreclosure rate was 0.3 percent, unchanged from December 2018.

The Inland region’s serious delinquency rate – 90 days or more past due, including foreclosed loans – was one percent, also the same as December 2018.

“The mortgage market had another solid year in 2019, and loan performance across the country continues to show improvement,” said Frank Martell, CoreLogic’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “The longest economic expansion in history helped serious delinquency rates reach a 20-year low.”