Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures Hit Record High

We're talking about one in seven homes have home loans that are past due. This is the highest rate since this statistic has been tracked.

And this is with massive government intervention into the mortgage market to reduce foreclosures.

The Los Angeles Times says:

One in seven U.S. home loans were past due or in foreclosure during the third quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. said today – the highest level since the trade group started tracking troubled loans in 1972.

Consistent with recent quarterly delinquency surveys from the trade group, today’s report blamed job losses, not tricky adjustable-rate loans, for causing most of the pain. And four Sun Belt states — California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona — continued to account for a disproportionate amount of the pain.

Prime loans – those made to the borrowers with the best credit — continued to make up a growing percentage of troubled mortgages. In terms of sheer numbers, soured prime loans far outpaced troubled sub-prime loans to credit-challenged borrowers.