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Aged foreclosure inventory, which is comprised of residential mortgage loans in active foreclosure that are at least two years delinquent, has seen significant improvement in the last seven months, according to Black Knight Financial Services' May 2015 Mortgage Monitor released Monday.
Black Knight examined approximately 468,000 active foreclosures at least two years delinquent and discovered that about 20,000, or about 4 percent, have brought their mortgage up to current since October 2014. Presumably due to loss mitigation efforts on the part of lenders, about 51,500 (11 percent) of the loans shifted from two-plus years delinquent to 90-plus days delinquent status.
About 116,000 (roughly about one-quarter) of the loans examined had either completed foreclosure or been liquidated through short sales, according to Black Knight. Approximately 273,000 of the loans, representing about 59 percent, were still in active foreclosure.
"Between cures and loans processed through foreclosure or liquidation, this population has dropped by 136,000, or 29 percent, over the past seven months, only slightly below the 33 percent decline in total foreclosure inventory," Black Knight said in the report.
Foreclosure starts spiked by 11 percent up to 81,900 from April to May, driven by both repeat foreclosures and first-time foreclosures, according to Black Knight. This was following April's total of 73,500 foreclosure starts, which was the lowest monthly total reported since before the housing crisis. First-time foreclosures jumped by 9.3 percent month-over-month in May from 34,700 up to 37,900, while repeat foreclosures experienced an increase of about 13.4 percent(about 5,000) from April to May.
Meanwhile, the average number of days past due for loans in foreclosure increased up to 1,013 in May, which was its highest level since November 2014. Black Knight reports that the increase in days delinquent in the active foreclosure population has occurred mostly judicial states, where the foreclosure process must pass through the court system. The average number of days delinquent for loans 90 days or more delinquent but not in foreclosure declined to 535 days after six straight months of increases, according to Black Knight.
