Serious Delinquencies Setting Records; Housing Survey Takes a Turn

Serious Delinquencies Setting Records; Housing Survey Takes a Turn

Extremely serious delinquencies, those loans 150 days or more past due, reached historically high levels in August. Five months into the COVID-19 crisis, Corelogic said the rate of delinquencies among those loans spiked to 1.2 percent, the highest level since at least January 1999, which we assume is the limit of the company's records. CoreLogic said this surge was likely due to large volumes of delinquencies moving in tandem through the pipeline. Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic said, "This was the highest rate in more than 21 years and double the January 2010 peak during the home-price bust. The spike in delinquency was all the more stunning given the generational low of 0.08 percent in March and April." Loans meeting the more traditional measure of serious delinquency, 90