Mortgage delinquencies drop in Texas

The number of Texans who are behind on their mortgages fell significantly in the first quarter. Fewer than 9 percent of Texas homeowners with loans missed at least one payment during the first three months of 2010, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That's down from 10.3 percent at the end of 2009.

"This certainly solidifies, in my opinion, that we have absolutely hit bottom and are starting to come out of this," said Scott Norman, president of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association.

Only 1.45 percent of Texas mortgage holders are seriously delinquent, more than 90 days behind in payments.

Nationwide, the percentage of delinquent home mortgages rose in the quarter to 10.06 percent. And 4.63 percent of U.S. homeowners were in foreclosure.

In Texas, 2.08 percent of home loans were in foreclosure in the first quarter, said the lenders trade group, based in Washington, D.C.

Texas has outperformed the rest of the country in employment growth and economic recovery. But some states with high late loan rates are still in double digits: Nevada at 14.03 percent; Mississippi, 12.7 percent; and Georgia, 12.1 percent.

"The economy has begun to generate jobs and layoffs have declined, although new claims for unemployment insurance remained higher in the first quarter than we expected," Mortgage Bankers economist Jay Brinkmann said in the report. "The percent of loans behind one payment had been declining as first-time claims for unemployment began falling in March 2009.

"If mortgage delinquencies are not yet clearly improving, it also appears they are not getting worse," he said. "However, a bad situation that is not getting worse is still bad."

At 8.77 percent, mortgage delinquencies in Texas in the first quarter were still higher than they were in the same period of 2009, when 7.92 percent of loan holders were behind.

Home foreclosure postings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been down year-over-year for the last two months. But the number of foreclosure filings in the area is still up 10 percent so far this year from last year's record number.

Another new report out Wednesday says that Dallas-area home sales prices were up 3.54 percent in March from a year earlier.

California-based housing and mortgage researcher CoreLogic is predicting that home prices in the Dallas area will be up 0.75 percent for the year.

TEXAS LATE HOME MORTGAGE PAYMENTS
Percent of homeowners with loans who have missed at least one payment in each quarter.
3Q 2008 8.41%
4Q 2008 9.01%
1Q 2009 7.92%
2Q 2009 8.79%
3Q 2009 9.84%
4Q 2009 10.3%
1Q 2009 8.77%

Source: STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News