Reply #94: Mortgage delinquencies level off

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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/05/new-mortgage-delinquencies-slow.html

The percentage of homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments inched higher in the first quarter while the number of new foreclosures declined, a lobbying group for the home-lending industry says.

"Overall, it's a picture of the market on the mend," Michael Fratantoni, an economist at the Mortgage Bankers Assn., said in an interview.

In a report Thursday, the trade group said 8.32% of homeowners with mortgages had missed at least one payment, up from 8.25% in the final quarter of 2010 -- a change Fratantoni described as more "leveling off" than significant statistical change.

The rate, adjusted for seasonal variances, was well below that recorded a year earlier: 10.06% of borrowers were in some stage of delinquency in the first quarter of 2011.