As housing prices continue their climb toward pre-recession levels, enabling homeowners to regain equity, mortgage foreclosures and delinquency rates in the Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla., region remain on the decline.
The same goes for the rest of the Sunshine State, one of the hardest hit during the housing crisis.
According to the latest Loan Performance Insights report from data provider CoreLogic, less than 1% of homes in the two-county region were in foreclosure in March. Moreover, the area's delinquency rates also saw significant year-over-year drops.
"Dropping delinquency and foreclosure rates reflect the beneficial impact of stringent (loan) underwriting standards as well as better fundamentals such as higher employment, household formation and home price gains," Frank Martell, CoreLogic's president and CEO, said in a news release.
"Looking ahead, we expect these positive trends to continue as the industry shifts its focus toward solving supply shortages and looming affordability crises in an increasing number of markets," Martell said.
In March, the foreclosure rate for Manatee and Sarasota counties was 0.9 percent, down from 1% a month earlier and 1.5% a year earlier, CoreLogic reported Tuesday. Across Florida, it was 1.3%, down from 1.9% in March 2016.
As for delinquencies, 3.4% of area mortgages were at least 30 days behind. That's a drop from 3.9% in February and 4.5% year-over-year. Statewide, that rate was 5.2%, a significant decline from 6.7% a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the serious delinquency rate, representing loans that are 90 or more days late, was 2% in March in Manatee and Sarasota counties, down from 2.1% in February and 2.9% at the same point last year. In Florida, the rate dropped from 4.1% in March 2016 to 2.9% this year.
"Early-stage mortgage performance continues to improve at a steady pace, especially for 30-59-day delinquencies, which fell to 1.7%, the lowest rate for any month since January 2000," said Frank Nothaft, the chief economist at CoreLogic. "Late-stage serious delinquency rates continue to decline, falling to their lowest levels since November 2007."
The nationwide foreclosure rate in March was 0.8%, down from 1% a year earlier.
Across the nation, 4.4% of homeowners in March were at least one month behind on their mortgage, a year-over-year decline from 5.2%.
