The findings are part of Black Knight's "first look" at its February mortgage data. Other highlights from the findings include:
- A 36,000 rise in overall delinquencies was driven by a nearly 65,000 increase in those just a single payment behind, while 60-day delinquencies fell by nearly 12,000 (-4.0%) and 90-day delinquencies fell by 17,000 (-3.0%)
- The national mortgage delinquency rate increased 7 basis points in February to 3.45%, but remains down 12.6% year over year
- 45 states saw their serious delinquency volumes (90+ days past due) improve in February
- Foreclosure starts decreased by 9% in the month to 29,000, breaking a streak of increases, with starts remaining 19% below pre-pandemic levels
- Foreclosure starts equated to 5.1% of serious delinquencies in February, down from January and still 25% below the start rate seen in February 2020 prior to the pandemic
- Active foreclosure inventory rose marginally (+2,000) in the month, and is up 34,000 (+15%) from February 2022 despite remaining 15% below its pre-pandemic level
- February saw 7,1001 foreclosure sales (completions) nationally, up 2.5% from the month prior