Posted on 03/03/2009 6:32:59 AM PST by marshmallow
CHICAGO (AP) -- The number of people who were late making their mortgage payments shot up 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007, according to data provided by TransUnion LLC.
The credit reporting agency said its database shows delinquencies -- or the percentage of mortgage holders at least 60 days behind on payments, considered a precursor to foreclosure -- jumped to 4.58 percent nationally, from 2.99 percent for the 2007 fourth quarter.
That was 16 percent above the 3.96 percent rate seen in the third quarter, TransUnion said, and marked the eighth straight quarter that deliquency rates rose.
"It's about what we were expecting," said Keith Carson, senior consultant in TransUnion's financial services group. But while not unexpected, the huge jump from last year was still "alarming," Carson said.
TransUnion, best known for its consumer credit rating data, projects delinquency rates could reach as high as 8 percent by the end of the year. The company isn't predicting that the climate will improve until the middle of 2010.
The states that have shown the highest delinquency and foreclosure rates remain the same. Florida is on top, with a 9.52 percent rate for the fourth quarter, while Nevada is second with 9.01 percent. Arizona came in at 6.93 percent and California right behind at 6.88 percent. Carson said there is a glut of homes in those states, which is combining with increasing economic woes and declining home values to keep the rates high.
North Dakota, at 1.21 percent, remains the state with the lowest delinquency rate.
The figures are culled from TransUnion Trend Data, which consists of 27 million consumer records randomly sampled each month from the credit reporting agency's national consumer credit database.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
Will no doubt start dropping soon - When the Gov’t starts picking up the tab. Same for cars, gas and groceries. It’s all about the ‘Stimulus’ dontcha know.
The other elephant in the room is all the people with negative equity. Many people, probably in the millions, who can afford their homes are so far upside down that it may take many, many years for their equity to meet their debt. Two of my kids are about $120K negative right now. They can afford their payments, but I gotta wonder just how many years they’ll have this issue around their necks. They can’t sell, move, refinance or even rent their homes out for the amount of their payments.
I wonder how many of them, when they get in a bind, just give up and say “well, everybody else is doing it and the government will bail me out anyway, why should I pay?”
Why would anyone pay their mortgage? The government is on its way.
Exactly...I expect the same to happen with credit cards in the near future.
Why work when everything is free....yea Obama!!
You are quite right. The typical O supporter full-well expects the gubmint to pick up their tab. After all, they are entitled, right?
“Why would anyone pay their mortgage? The government is on its way.”
I wish I had one to default on! Worked hard and paid mine off in 7 years. I am but a fool!
You are not alone. What a mistake we made. Now we'll be stuck with paying other folks' mortgages. We'll be paying for multiple mortgages and if we had just defaulted on our own we would get a bailout.
According to Warren Brussee (The Great Depression of Debt)another wave of mortgage resets/defaults are set to start this year coming from the insane option ARM market.
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