Over the past year, mortgage performance has improved as foreclosure activity has decreased, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s third quarter of 2015 mortgage metrics report.
The percentage of current and performing mortgages in the portfolio was 93.9% at the end of the third quarter of 2015, slightly up from 93% a year earlier.
The percentage of mortgages that were 30 to 59 days past due also dropped, falling from 4.4% a year earlier to 2.3%.
Additionally, the percentage of mortgages in the portfolio that were seriously delinquent — 60 or more days past due or held by bankrupt borrowers whose payments were 30 or more days past due — dropped 16.1% from a year earlier, to 2.6% of the portfolio.
On the foreclosure side, servicers initiated 64,156 new foreclosures during the quarter, falling 22.4% from a year earlier.
Also declining, the number of completed foreclosures fell to 33,106, a decrease of 26.8% from a year earlier.
As a whole, the number of loans in the process of foreclosure at the end of the third quarter of 2015 has declined 23.8% from a year earlier, decreasing to 269,751.
The report attributed the decrease in foreclosure inventory to improved economic conditions and aggressive foreclosure prevention assistance.
