Article Courtesy of The Miami
Herald
By Rene Rodriguez
Published
January 16, 2018
Four months after Hurricane Irma made landfall in the
Keys and worked its way up Florida’s west coast, the scope of the
storm’s long-term effects are still coming into focus.
According to the latest monthly Loan Performance
Insights Report by the analytics firm CoreLogic, 12.5 percent of
mortgages in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area were at
least 30 days delinquent in October 2017 — a 4.9 percent increase over
October 2016.
South Florida’s
uptick in early-stage mortgage delinquencies, defined as
30-59 days past due, belies the national trend.
According to CoreLogic’s report, the U.S. rate for
early-stage mortgage delinquencies was 2.3 percent in
October 2017, up 0.01 percent from October 2016.
“The U.S. rate as a whole continues a downward trend,”
said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “But
there are a couple of places that buck that trend. One
is Texas and another one is Florida — both states that
were hit by hurricanes last year.”
Nothaft said many hurricane victims who fell behind on
their mortgage payments will eventually catch up. But
the process could take some time.
“We’re going to see some elevated delinquency rates
continuing over the next couple of months,” he said.
“Too many houses were damaged and had flooding. It takes
time for homeowners to rectify their financial situation
and can start making payments on their mortgage again.” |
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Damaged property litters the side of Overseas
Highway in Big Pine Key, Fla., following Hurricane Irma
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The CoreLogic measure includes all homes 30 days or more past due.
Overall foreclosure inventory rate in the U.S., or the share of homes in
some stage of the foreclosure process, was 5.1 percent — the lowest for
any October period since 2006.
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