Just in case you think that the mortgage crisis has ended, peruse these numbers of the ongoing train wreak. This can not end until action is taken to refinance the borrowers in some form or the other. The banks are been stuck with the properties.
I think that effectively the banking system has been forced to give up on sales and has not figured out how to finance enough new sales to repair the situation.
I have posted on one such strategy but cruder methods exist. Yet the banks are going a great impression of a deer caught in a headlamp.
Mortgage Delinquencies by Period and by State
by CalculatedRisk on 5/19/2010 04:01:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2010
Much was made last quarter about the decline in the 30 day delinquency "bucket" (percent of loans between 30 and 60 days delinquent). Unfortunately the seasonally adjusted 30 day delinquency rate increased in Q1 2010.
Note: there are some questions about the seasonal adjustment, especially for the 90 day bucket since we've never seen numbers this high before, but the adjustment for the 30 and 60 day periods are probably reasonable.
Click on graph for larger image in new window.
Loans 30 days delinquent increased to 3.45%, about the same level as in Q4 2008.
Delinquent loans in the 60 day bucket increased too, and are also close to the Q4 2008 level. This suggests that the pipeline is still filling up at a high rate, but slightly below the rates of early 2009.
The 90+ day and 'in foreclosure' rates are at record levels. Obviously the lenders have been slow to start foreclosure proceedings - and the 90+ day delinquent bucket is very full. Also lenders have been slow to actually foreclose - and the 'in foreclosure' bucket is at record levels.
These seriously delinquent loans are the 4.3 million loans MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann referred to as the "shadow inventory" on the conference call this morning. Not all are really "shadow inventory" since some of these loans will be modified, some will be cured (probably very few), and some are probably already listed as short sales. But it does suggest a significant number of distressed sales coming.
The second graph shows the delinquency rate by state (red is seriously delinquent: 90+ days or in foreclosure, blue is delinquent less than 90 days).
This highlights a couple more points that Brinkmann made this morning: 1) the largest category of delinquent loans are fixed rate prime loans, and 2) this is not just a "sand state" problem. Brinkmann argued the foreclosure crisis is now being driven by economic problems as opposed to the bursting of the housing price bubble - and this is showing up in prime loans and all states. Although
Thirty four states and the
