Mortgate Delinquencies Soar in February: 4 in 10 Subprime Mortgages 30 or more Days Late
Reuters is reporting today that 7 percent of homeowners with mortgages are at least 30 days late on their loans in February. This is a 50 percent increase from February 2008. And a whopping 4 out of 10 homeowners with subprime mortgages are 30 days or more delinquent- an increase of 23.7 percent from the year before.
Dann Adams, president of U.S. Information Systems for Equifax Inc, is quoted in the article as saying the continued increase in mortgage delinquencies revealed in his data foreshadows more foreclosures, short sales and home price declines as homeowners default and banks then repossess the homes to sell them at deep discounts.Adams also notes that the rising unemployment -- 663,000 jobs lost in March alone sending the national unemployment rate soaring to 8.5 percent-- has also had an impact on late payments. Job losses lead to consumer reliance on credit cards, however, banks closed 8 million credit card accounts in February, reducing the number of open cards to 400 million from a July 2008 peak of 483 million, according to Equifax data.
