Mortgage performance continues to improve with 2015 ending figures showing good numbers particularly in terms of foreclosure inventory and delinquent mortgages.
Black Knight Financial Services has released the "first look" mortgage performance statistics for the December 2015 based on its loan-level database of mortgage assets.
The data, which represents majority of the mortgage market in the country, shows that foreclosure pre-sale inventory declined by 21.85 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year, and 1 percent compared to November. That's 689,000 properties, which is 192,000 less than the 2014 figures and 9,000 less than the previous month.
Delinquent loan in the U.S. that are 30+ days past their due but are not yet in foreclosure fell by 14.98 percent year-on-year and by 2.99 percent as compared to the previous month. At the end of 2015, the number of delinquent properties is at 2.408 million, 425,000 less than the previous year. Meanwhile, there are 808,000 properties that are 90+ days past due, but are not in foreclosure by the end of 2015.
There are 3.097 million properties that are 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure at the year's end, down 92,000 from November and 618,000 year-on-year.
The company said that November saw a "lackluster" performance, as reported by Mortgage News Daily, with prepayment rate increasing by 23.85 percent in December. This is a 1.29 percent rise from a year earlier.
On the downside, total U.S. foreclosure starts is 78,100 by the end of December, a 17.27 percent rise from November. Still, this is 14.64 percent lower than in 2014.
In terms of non-current percentage, the top five states include Mississippi (12.33 percent), New Jersey (10.13 percent), Louisiana (9.9 percent), Maine (8.9 percent) and New York (8.79 percent).
Black Knight is set to release an in-depth review of the above data in its monthly Mortgage Monitor report and will be made available online by Feb. 1.
