Loan Performance Insights Report Highlights: January 2022
- The nation’s overall delinquency rate was 3.3% in January.
- All U.S. states and metro areas posted year-over-year decreases in delinquencies.
In January 2022, 3.3% of home mortgages were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure)[1], which was a 2.3-percentage point decrease from January 2021 according to the latest CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report . This is the lowest recorded overall delinquency rate in the U.S. since at least January 1999.
Overall Delinquency Rates
The share of mortgages that were 30 to 59 days past due — considered early-stage delinquencies — was 1.2% in January 2022, down from 1.3% in January 2021. The share of mortgages 60 to 89 days past due was 0.3% in January 2022, down from 0.5% in January 2021.
The serious delinquency rate — defined as 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure — was 1.8% in January, down from 3.8% in January 2021. While the foreclosure rate declined to 0.2% from 0.3% January 2021, the expiration of moratoriums in some states caused the number of foreclosures to rise from December 2021. Nevertheless, the January 2022 foreclosure rate was flat from December and is still the lowest recorded since at least 1999.
Figure 1: Current- to 30-Day Transition Rate Shows Sharp Decrease From Year Ago
January 2022
Stage of Delinquency: Rate of Transition
In addition to delinquency rates, CoreLogic tracks the rate at which mortgages transition from one stage of delinquency to the next, such as going from current to 30 days past due (Figure 1).
The share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due was 0.7% in January 2022 — unchanged since January 2021. Low transition rates indicate that while the rate of mortgages in any stage of delinquency remained elevated, fewer borrowers slipped into delinquency than at the peak of delinquency rates in 2020.
Figure 2: States With the Highest and Lowest Rate of Mortgages At Least 30 Days Past Due
January 2022
State and Metro Level Delinquencies
All states posted annual decreases in their overall delinquency rates in January 2022 as the employment picture improved across the country compared to a year earlier. Figure 2 shows the states with the highest and lowest share of mortgages 30 days or more delinquent. In January 2022, that rate was highest in Louisiana at 6.3% and lowest in Idaho at 1.6%. Idaho has had one of the strongest job recoveries in the U.S. and Louisiana has had one of the weakest. As of January 2022, Idaho had recovered all the jobs lost in March and April 2020 while Louisiana had only recovered 68% of jobs lost.
Figure 3: Percentage of Mortgages At Least 30 Days Past Due For the 10 Largest Metropolitan Areas
January 2022
Figure 3 shows the 30-plus-day past-due rate for January 2022 for 10 large metropolitan areas.[2] New York and Houston tied for the highest rate at 4.6%, and San Francisco had the lowest rate at 1.7%. Miami’s rate decreased 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier. Outside of the largest 10, all metros recorded a decrease in the overall delinquency rate. Nevertheless, elevated overall delinquency rates remain in some metros, including Pine Bluff, Arkansas (9.2%); Odessa, Texas (8.8%) and Vineland-Bridgeton, New Jersey (8.6%).
The nation’s overall mortgage delinquency rate reached a historic low in January, marking the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. This trend can be attributed to two familiar factors: escalating home prices and a strong job market. U.S. home prices continue to reach new highs, posting 20% year-over-year growth in February. Meanwhile, the latest U.S. jobs report shows that the country added an average of 562,000 positions per month in the first quarter of 2022.
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[1] Data in this report is provided by TrueStandings Servicing. https://www.corelogic.com/products/truestandings-servicing.aspx. The CARES Act provided forbearance for borrowers with federally backed mortgage loans who were economically impacted by the pandemic. Borrowers in a forbearance program who have missed a mortgage payment are included in the CoreLogic delinquency statistics, even if the loan servicer has not reported the loan as delinquent to credit repositories.
[2] Metropolitan areas used in this report are the 10 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The report uses Metropolitan Divisions where available.
