Mortgage Delinquencies Slip In Greater Boston
BOSTON (CBS) - Boston-area homeowners are having an easier time managing their mortgages, as the rate of delinquent payments hit a near two-year low in April while foreclosure activity continued to cool.
That's according to a new CoreLogic Inc. analysis of housing data in Suffolk, Norfolk and Plymouth counties, where homeowners collectively managed to outperform the rest of the United States, in terms of staying current on their home loans.
The report found that, as of April 30, 5.79 percent of active home loans were delinquent in the so-called Boston-Quincy region. The rate was down from March's rate of 5.91 percent and marked the region's lowest delinquency rate on record since July 2009. CoreLogic qualifies a mortgage as delinquent if it is at least 90 days past due or in some stage of the foreclosure or OREO (other real estate owned) process.
The mortgage-delinquency rate for all of Massachusetts in April was 5.58 percent, while the national rate was 7.39 percent. Both the state and U.S. rates were year-over-year improvements from the delinquency levels posted in April 2010, according to CoreLogic.
On the foreclosure front, 2.15 percent of all active home loans in the Boston-Quincy region were in the auction pipeline. The rate was the region's lowest since June 2010 (2.01 percent), although it was up from the year-earlier rate of 1.95 percent posted in April 2010.
Statewide, the foreclosure rate was 2.14 percent, while the national rate was 3.47 percent.
Lisa Van Der Pool of the Boston Business Journal reports
In the Boston-Quincy region, the delinquency rate's most recent high point was 7.27 percent, which was recorded in both January and February 2010. The area's foreclosure rate topped out at 2.3 percent in December.
